God of War: The Wrong Ones
by Faryna
Summary: Athena wants to help Kratos and promises to send him warriors. But the only persons she finds are Ray, a huge GoW fan, and Jana, a computer nerd with Asperger's syndrome... M for language, blood and because I'm paranoid.
1. Hackers, Gods and a lot of Trouble

**Chapter 1****: **Hackers, Gods and a lot of Trouble

**AN**

**I came up with this story after playing WAY to much God of War with my best friends. We played through I, II and the first quarter of III without a break so you can probably imagine how long it took us :P And no, is was no speed run: We died often, opened each and every chest and battled Zeus TWO times. And by the way, Jana is not me.**

**There will be some blood, gore and strong language later on, so be warned.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything except Ray and Jana. Everything else belongs to Sony.**

**Anyway, here is the story!**

**/AN**

It was a warm Friday afternoon, the sun was shining, kids came home from school… things were going pretty normal as they always did.

Jana sat in her room and surfed the internet; the shade was down to keep the bright sunlight out. That was normal, too. Or at least for her it was. You'd see her hardly outside, especially not if the weather was warm. The room was small with an untidy bed, lots of books and a giant desk covered with more books, cables and CDs, homework for the ancient Greek club, two laptops and an additional screen. Another computer was standing under the table.

She was currently waiting for her best friend Ray to show up because they planned to spend the evening playing on Ray's PS3. He had already announced to bring some 'really awesome' games for the 'beautiful lady in black', as he called his console. The girl was a bit nervous for she met her friends seldom outside of school and normally only for project work or birthday parties.

Some minutes later the doorbell rang. Jana shut down the laptop with three keystrokes, raced out of her room, down the staircase and flung open the door. It was Ray with a sports bag in his hands and a broad grin on his face. The bag probably contained both black lady and games. Like her Ray was wearing a pair of Jeans and a simple T-Shirt.

"Hi! What's up?" she said cheerfully, stepping to the side to let Ray in.

"Hey. Err, nothing big." The boy shrugged and smiled. He held up the bag a bit. "Let's set her up?"

"Yeah. Come on." Jana turned around and headed towards the living room. Ray followed her. They connected the consol to the TV screen and sound system within minutes and Ray fired it up.

"Here we go! Is your WLAN up at the moment?" Ray looked over to Jana who was configuring the TV. She smiled at that.

"WLAN 's always up." The black lady's menu appeared and Ray went over to his bag looking for a game. Jana headed for the kitchen to get a bottle of Coke and two glasses.

In the meantime Ray had found the Disk he was looking for: God of War I, one of his favorite games. He had told Jana about the series before as they talked about violence in hack and slash games with some other friends but he was sure she never played it before - at least not on a console. He knew Jana long enough to know, that, if she wanted to play it on her computer, she'd make it work somehow.

Anyway, Ray inserted the DVD and started the game. Jana reentered the living room as the title screen came up. She put down a tray with Coke, glasses and crisps on the table and sat down next to Ray.

"_God of War_. Hmm. Wasn't that the game where you cut centaurs open and kill Kronos with a giant sword?" Jana said without taking her eyes of the screen.

"Yeah, but both parts appear in the third part of the series." Ray chuckled. "By the way, is there something you don't remember?"

"Yep. There is a formula for the electro-magnetic field I keep forgetting."

"You are a nerd. Is someone else beside us here?"

"You keep telling me that." She grinned. "And no. My Mum is working and Leona is on the way to a concert with a friend of hers."

"All right then." Ray selected "new game" and chose the difficulty level.

The flames and face shown on the screen faded to black until the screen was completely dark. The music stopped playing and silence fell over the room.

"What the hell?" Ray said into the silence. He had played the game many times and knew how the beginning should look like. He bowed forward a bit and tilted his head. Jana had noticed Ray's confusion and frowned at the screen.

"Maybe we got a loose connection somewhere… I'll check the plugs. Tell me when the picture comes back on. Strange…" Jana stood up and walked over to the TV rag. Ray watched as she checked the plugs but the screen stayed dark. The situation made him feel uncomfortable somehow. To him it seemed kind of creepy. And embarrassing.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

"I don't get it. The plugs are all right, the PS is still running…" Jana glanced over to Ray. "Where is the error? Hmm… Let's reboot the thing. Maybe it hangs."

"You thing a reboot will solve it?" he asked. The girl only shrugged.

"Might be. And it's the easiest and fastest thing we can start with. Still, that fading out looked kinda planned…"

Ray walked over to Jana and looked over her shoulder. The black lady was standing on the floor and was still running. Like Jana said.

She kneeled down to restart the console.

"HOLY SHIT!" Ray shouted suddenly and jumped back. Jana's head shot up and she glanced at the screen. It showed the face of a woman wearing something like a diadem now.

"Cool, we got a picture again." She said with a happy smile. "Looks, like it works." Turning around to Ray, she saw him starring at the face with his mouth hanging open and his eyes widened.

"You… you know, who this is?" He asked, shock and surprise noticeable in his voice. Jana looked at the picture and then back to Ray.

"Uh, no… Who-"

"_I am Athena__." _The person on the screen said. _"And my world needs your help."_

Ray was still starring at Athena's face. This was completely impossible. Game characters don't just show up in scenes they are not supposed to and say lines of text they never use in-game. And they don't manipulate a game like that.

"Wait a sec. I thought you played it before?" Jana got up again and reached for the controller.

"Of cause I did! But you are supposed to see the player's character com-"

"_Are the two of you willing to help __me?"_ Athena asked.

"What exactly do you mean with 'help'?" Jana asked back. She felt stupid about talking to the image and wasn't sure if Ray was just playing a trick on her. She looked at her friend but he seemed to be even more confused than she was right now. Her gaze returned to the screen as Athena started talking again.

"_I cannot go into detail, but basically I ask you to help another mortal on his quest to save my city."_

"This is the best joke I've EVER heard! A video game asks two kids to help the biggest badass in video game history… damn funny…" Ray said shaking his head with a light chuckle. He finally overcame his shock and was acting more or less normal again.

"_I am not joking. Kratos might be strong but he is not invincible. And that is why I need you to __aid him. You seem to be the best choice for the task."_

Ray and Jana looked at each other.

"She's gone crazy… NO WAY!" The boy said.

"From what I've heard… well, you're right there." Jana turned to Athena again. "But do we have a choice here?" Her eyebrows rose a bit. Ray frowned at that and wanted to say something but Athena was faster.

"_No."_

"Why the hell do you even ask then?" Ray sounded and looked slightly annoyed now.

_Out of pure politeness."_

"We are so screwed..." He stated. "I used the Spartan difficulty-level."

"I guess that means hard."

"Exactly."

"Fuck-"

Then a flash of white light filled the room. The spots where Jana and Ray stood a split second ago were empty and the TV screen went back to the PS3's menu. Everything looked like the two kids had left without turning off the console.


	2. Meeting the Spartan

**Chapter****2:** Meeting the Spartan

**AN**

**Okay, ****here**** comes ****chapter ****2.**

**I ****really**** hope**** I**** can ****keep ****Kratos ****in-character****…**

**Here ****we**** go!**

**/AN**

"-my life…"

Jana looked around and her jaw dropped.

She was standing on the deck of a ship, the sky was dark with clouds and cold rain was falling. Within seconds she was soaked to the skin. A stature of Athena was standing right behind her and Ray was standing next to her with an Oh-my-fucking-god-what-is-going-on-look on his face.

Some meters away she saw a third person: A guy with bald head, strange grey skin, a red tattoo over his left eye and chest and a scar over the right eye. He looked like a bodybuilder on doping, wore sandals and a tattered piece of cloth around his hips and had chains warped around his arms. He looked like he wanted to kill someone. This, of cause, explained Ray's expression.

"Are you KIDDING me?" The bodybuilder yelled at the stature. "You wanted to send me WARRIORS! Those are mere children!" Jana and Ray exchanged nervous glances.

"_No.__They__are__hackers,__the__most__brutal__and__feared__kind__of__warriors__you__can__imagine.__They__have__the__power__to__spread__plagues__and__destroy__entire__cities."_ Athena's stature responded. At that point Jana's yaw nearly hit the floor. If the situation wouldn't have been that frightening she'd probably laughed her head off. The plague-thing was probably referring to viruses, but destroying entire cities? Jana had no clue what Athena meant with that.

"They aren't even ARMED!" Kratos was getting really annoyed. Athena tasked him to kill a god and the only help she was granting him were two unarmed teens! He didn't believe the part about plagues and cities. The kids looked like they'd run away as soon as an undead soldier came their way and Kratos expected a whole lot of these creatures to wait in Athens.

"Uh… he has got a point there, you know?" The boy spoke up turning around to Athena. "Our weapons are at home and they won't be of any use here. Maybe you should send us back…"

"There you hear it. They are OF NO WORTH FOR ME!"

"_See__it__that__way__then:__They__have__a__great__character__and__skills__that__might__come__in__handy__one__day."_ Athena said. The glow surrounding the stature faded away and the three mortals were alone at the deck.

"What the hell…?" Jana muttered looking at Ray, who only shook his head in disbelieve. Kratos frowned, turned around and stomped off towards the helm, ignoring them completely.

"At least we're still alive…" Ray said with a forced grin. Jana could tell he was relived. "Woah, it's fucking cold here. Let's go down..." He said pointing at a wooden hatch.

Jana tilted her head a bit. "You think we're allowed to do that? Honestly, I don't trust that guy."

"No sane person who played _God__of__War_ does. But I don't think he will mind."

"Great… And we are stuck on a ship with him." They moved to the hatch leading to the lower deck and climbed down a ladder. The deck was lightened up by torches, making it a bit warmer than outsides. Jana guessed they were standing in the cargo of the ship hold because the middle of the room was occupied by metal cages, boxes, sacks and amphorae.

Jana walked around the deck carefully and Ray followed her. He inspected one of the empty cages hoping to find something comparable with a towel while Jana took a closer look at some of the boxes.

"Look at that!" the girl's voice sounded over to him. It seemed she had opened one of the boxes and found something interesting. Ray shrugged and walked over to his friend. The box contained weapons, or more precisely some short swords with scabbards.

"Nice. At least we've weapons…" At that moment he heard footsteps behind him and turned around only to see Kratos coming towards them. The Spartan's face showed his usual annoyed expression. Jana had noticed him, too.

"We will reach Athens in some hours. And you should get yourself some normal clothing." He pointed at another box without stopping and left for his quarters at the opposite side of the cargo hold. The door slammed shut behind him. "Normal clothing. Of course." Jana muttered in a sarcastic manner next to Ray. She was probably referring to the tattered tunica. "Who is the guy anyway?"

"His name is Kratos and he's the main character in the GoW series." Ray pointed out. "The guy killed his family several years ago, got nightmares and other bad stuff because of that and is now serving the gods. This seems to be the beginning of the first part, meaning Kratos is tasked to kill Ares. Athena promised him to forgive his sins if he succeeds. By the way, Ares is currently destroying Athens. That's why we are going there."

"Sounds shitty." Jana stated while thinking about the information. "Do we have any plans?"

"Staying out of the way is probably the best we can do. And trying to stay alive somehow." Ray chewed on his upper lip thinking. "Every other game would have been cool. But this? Being stuck in the most brutal game ever… Wonderful."

"There must be a way back to our world. But I doubt we'll find it by standing around." The girl said in a calm tone. "Came on, let's have a look on these clothes. I'm freezing my ass off." Ray wondered how she managed to stay that calm, for he had been close to panicking ever since Athena first showed up on the TV screen. And he was feeling cold, too.

"You have a point there, I guess." They went to the crate Kratos had pointed at and opened it, placing the top on the floor. Jana was watching over Ray's shoulder. The crate contained a lot of stuff Ray couldn't identify on the first glance. Jana, however, recognized the content as parts of ancient Greek armor. Ray hadn't thought Kratos would keep any equipment on his ship because in the games he was always wearing the same tattered piece of cloth.

After trying for some time they had managed to find out how to put the armor on. Everything the friends had found in the crate was damaged, resulting in both of them having several scratches and dents spread across their breastplates and graves. The linen-stripes and other clothing the kids used looked really worn and Jana had decided to cut of the biggest part of the legs her Jeans so she could wear them under the linen-stripes without anyone noticing. Ray had done the same.

Jana had guessed that the armor parts were prey from former battles because of the damage and the high prices of new sets, but Ray wasn't really interested. Both of them were sitting on the floor, back leaned against the ship's hull and were happy to be rid of their wet clothing.

"You're looking like kinda wired now." Jana crossed her arms and glanced at her friend in a critical manner.

"And you don't look any better as far as I can tell. Oh, made up any great ideas how to survive this by now?"

Jana shook her head. "I don't know enough about the game, so… but I have noticed something strange."

"What?" Ray asked curiously.

Jana thought for a moment and began: "As far as I know the armor we are wearing should have a weight of around 10 kilos. And obviously that's not the case. So the data I had could be wrong, the armor is crafted out of extreme light material or we are stronger than we were back home. The last seems to be the most logical explanation to me." Ray hadn't noticed till now but as Jana mentioned it, things were kind of obvious. The armor seemed to be only slightly heavier than his wet clothing had been.

But the girl wasn't done jet. "There is something else. We are in ancient Greece and Kratos is speaking English. That's wired, don't you think?" Ray nodded and said: "Yeah, it sure as hell is. I wonder…" He trailed off.

Jana frowned. "What?" Ray bit his lip. "This may sound stupid and I'm not sure but… in the game the gods give special powers or weapons to Kratos. Maybe Athena gave us something comparable."

They sat in silence for a while and Ray was getting more and more nervous.

"What exactly is going to happen in Athens? I doubt Kratos goes in, kills Ares and leaves again. How is he going to kill Ares anyway? Considering that guy's a god…" Jana asked. Her voice sounded still calm and controlled.

Ray shifted nervously. Thinking about the events to come was one thing but talking about them seemed to be more difficult to him. "In the game you have to fight trough a lot of enemies, solve some riddles and rescue an oracle. She is going to tell you about Pandora's box… at least I think it's her. Haven't played the first part in years. Whatever… The Box is hidden in a temple in the desert and you have to get there, solve more riddles and kill lots of monsters until you find it. Then… oh, fuck… we'll have to get back to Athens somehow…" He stopped biting on his lip again.

"Pandora's box as a weapon. Hmm… interesting."

"You know the story?"

"Of course I do! Everyone does. The gods sealed the evil of the world together with hope in the box, Pandora is curious, opens it and evil escapes while hope stays inside." Jana smiled a bit. "I'm in the ancient Greek club, remember? We read stuff like that."

"Yeah, right. But the hope thingy was in the original story?" Ray was a bit surprised.

"As far as I know, it was."

"Okay then… Didn't know that."

Suddenly the door to Kratos' quarters swung and crashed against the hull of the ship. Kratos marched out and noticed them. He turned to the supplies in the middle of the room, bowed down and searched for something between them. Ray couldn't see what exactly the Spartan was doing. Moments later Kratos stood back up with two shields and spears in his hands. He handed them to Ray and Jana, who were still sitting on the floor, without a word and left by climbing up the ladder.

The kids exchanged glances. "We should get ourselves swords." Jana was already getting onto her feet as she said that. Ray watched her as she went to the box with swords and took two. She returned and gave one to Ray. It was in a scabbard which had a long strap attached to it. Jana had already figured things out and showed Ray how to sling it over his shoulder.

She sat down next to him again and Ray took a closer look at one of the shields. It was circular, probably made from wood and copper and had the Spartan tip-like symbol on the outside. Jana explained it was the Greek letter lambda and talked about the symbol's origin bur Ray stopped listening as two women left the captain's quarters.

Jana stopped talking and followed Ray's gaze. He knew the women from the game but had never seen them fully dressed. Both of them were throwing the kids unsteady looks.

"Uh… Hi." Jana said in an attempt to break the deafening silence that had fallen over the room.

Before anyone could say a word Kratos climbed down the ladder and growled: "We reached Athens. Now get moving." Ray and Jana exchanged terrified glances and got up. Kratos left again and the kids put their shields on their backs once more noting how light weighted the equipment seemed to be, grabbed their spears and followed the warrior.

"Shit, this is bad…" Jana said as she climbed up the ladder. Once she was outside on the deck, Ray handed her the spears and climbed up himself. The girl gave the nearly 2 meters long weapon back and looked around.

**AN**

**Cookies**** for**** everyone ****who**** figures**** out ****which ****city**** Athena ****is**** referring**** to!**

**/AN**


	3. Welcome to Athens!

**Chapter 3****: **Welcome to Athens!

**AN**

**Χαιρετε, ω φιλοι****!**

…**wait, wrong language…**

**Anyway, there will be some battle scenes this time!**

**Read and review, please. Helpful criticism is ****always appreciated :)**

**Oh, and if you find any misspellings or grammar errors, tell me and I'll try to fix them! (English isn't my first language…)**

**Here is chapter 3! Enjoy!**

**/AN**

Athens lay in ruins as the ship entered the harbor. Distant fire lightened the dark sky and the only noises to be heard were the waves slapping against the stone docks. Ray shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other as the ship finally came to a stop. Jana was standing next to him and eyed the empty docks suspiciously. Her fists were clenched and as far as he could tell she was concentrating on the situation. There were no enemies in sight jet but Ray knew it wouldn't stay that way. He was afraid of the hours to come and knew Jana was too, even if she hid it well.

Jana was mentally going through everything she had learned at Ju-Jutsu training and hoped it would help her to survive the game somehow.

Kratos came back from the helm and set up a bridge connecting ship and docks. He left the ship followed by the two teenagers. Ray had both his spear and shield ready as he crossed the bridge and stepped on solid ground. Jana was close behind him. "Oh, shit…" he muttered and looked around. Suddenly three black holes opened up on the floor in front of Kratos.

The Spartan drew his blades immediately and went into a fighting stance. Jana cursed under her breath and raised her shield while tightening her grip onto the spear. Ray did the same as red smoke began to emerge from the holes and Undead Soldiers started to climb out. Then he heard a sound from behind him and both kids spun around. Another Undead had spawned behind them and was preparing to attack. Dark grey skin, thick armor and a long, curved sword. The creature was at least one head higher than Ray was.

The monster groaned and rushed forward towards Jana. The girl ducked and the enemy's sword barley missed her head. Ray tried to pierce the creature with his spear but its armor stopped the attack. The Undead turned towards him and Ray managed to block the next two strikes with his shield before landing a hit with the metal end of the spear against the Undead's head. It stumbled backward and Jana used her shield to push it off the dock into the dark water below.

Black smoke ascending from the water told Ray the Undead was… well… dead. They had killed it. A disturbing thought even though it was just a mindless zombie from a game… or wasn't it? Ray wasn't sure.

He turned around and saw Kratos finishing off the last remaining enemy by slicing it in half with his blades. Blood poured out and both halves turned into black smoke as soon as they hit the ground. The Spartan's body and the floor around him were already covered with blood. Ray cringed at the sight.

Kratos continued walking as soon as he had made sure all enemies were dead. He didn't care for Ray and Jana to catch up with him. The Spartan doubted the kids would stand a chance against stronger foes, whatever Athena had said about their abilities.

Ray and Jana hurried through the alley of damaged pillars, avoiding the pools of blood Kratos had left behind and followed him. Turning left towards a stone bridge they saw three more Undead charging at them. Kratos stopped half way across the bridge and took his bloody blades out once more. Ray had stopped next to the Spartan and Jana stayed back a bit.

Kratos grabbed Ray's spear and threw it. The weapon went right through the head of first Undead who turned into black smoke almost instantly. Ray drew his sword. Jana ducked behind her shield, spear lowered. The other two undead reached them, one of them colliding with Jana, its momentum making her stumble backward a step. She regained her balance, rammed it with her shield on her own and knocked it back some steps. One of Kratos' blades took care of the rest by cutting the creature's head right off. Blood splattered and the body vanished into a cloud of smoke. The other Undead was dead already, stabbed through its chest as it approached the pale Spartan.

Ray let escape a breath he didn't knew he had been holding. "Jeez… Cool move." He shot his friend a small smile even though he didn't felt like smiling at all. The last couple minutes had been much too bloody and brutal for his taste. He was still hoping to wake up in his bed back home, finding the events had been nothing more but a wired dream. Jana gave him a short smile.

They walked off the bridge and followed the street past more destroyed pillars. Ray stopped for a moment to pick up his spear. Jana and Kratos had already rounded a corner and the boy hurried up to keep up with them. He followed Jana over a wooden bridge leading to an ancient elevator. A part of the way had been destroyed. In-game it had never been a problem to jump over the gap but in reality? Kratos crossed it and Jana followed after a moment's hesitation.

She made the jump much to her own surprise without problems. Ray must have been right about their enhanced power.

After Ray saw how easy Jana had crossed the gap he followed her and stepped onto the platform they were going to use as elevator. Kratos pulled the lever in the middle and the platform began to ascend through a wooden scaffold. Ray watched as Jana looked around curiously. She was interested in every kind of technology and was probably figuring out how the elevator worked. Ray saw Kratos' ship and noticed two shapes on deck. He guessed it were the women they had already encountered. What really scared him was the thought of the Minotaurs waiting for them on the wooden walkways after leaving the elevator.

The platform came to a stop. Kratos stepped on the walkway and Ray whispered to Jana "Be careful, Minotaurs are going to attack us soon." Jana nodded slightly to show she had understood the warning. The kids followed Kratos. As they rounded the next corner, they saw two Athenian warriors running towards them.

"Run! Run! The beasts have taken Athens!" One of them shouted. Kratos stopped and took out the blades of chaos. The men had nearly reached him as two huge Minotaurs carrying axes came into sight. The monsters came round the corner, slowed down and one of them threw its axe at the fleeing soldiers. The first one dodged it but the second one wasn't that lucky. Ray cringed as the man's head was cut off. Blood splattered in every direction. Kratos stepped to the side and the axe flew past him. Jana cursed as the monsters started running again. "We need to help that guy!"

But it was too late. The man screamed and ran as fast as he could but the Minotaurs had caught up with him within seconds. One of them jumped and slammed its axe into the man, turning him into a mass of blood and gore. Jana looked away and Ray noticed a hint of green in the girl's features. The first monster roared at them and swung its axe through the air. Ray took a step back. He felt like this was too much for him to handle.

Kratos stormed forward swinging the Blades of Chaos against the enemies. The kids exchanged glances unsure what to do now. The Spartan was currently dealing with one monster as the second one turned its horned head and noticed the two friends. It roared and charged towards them. "Oh, SHIT!" Ray shouted as both of them ducked quickly behind their shields, spears pointed at the charging beast.

It collided with them, impaling itself on the spears and pushed the kids over. Ray, Jana and the Minotaur hit the floor with a loud crash.

Kratos heard Ray scream something followed by a crash and finished the Minotaur off by stabbing his blades into the creature's throat. As he turned around he saw the other Minotaur who had obviously knocked the kids to the ground turn into black smoke. Jana sat up, wiped some blood from her face and looked at her hand. "Jeez, this is… disgusting…" Both kids climbed to their feet and Ray stuttered "We- we killed it. We just killed a freaking Minotaur…" He sounded shocked and terrified by the event. To Kratos it was obvious that these two never fought in a battle before. But he was surprised they had survived the Minotaur's attack.

"Look out!" Jana yelled as she noticed another Minotaur approach. Kratos turned around again and his blades at the beast giving it some bad looking cuts. Ray glanced unsteadily at Jana, who seemed to be unsure about what to do next, too. "Maybe we should go and help him." She suggested and added "Even though I don't like the thought of killing things at all. It's completely against my principles…" Ray gulped. "Are you serious? These guys will kill us within seconds! It might be better to get away from here."

"The last two guys were killed by us… Doesn't mean it stays like that, but still… And I doubt trying to get away is going to help us at all. Annoying Athena wouldn't be that clever at the moment - Assuming this is real and all." Jana said quietly. The boy nodded. His friend had a point there, that much was for sure. Athena brought them here and she probably had the power to bring them back home. And as far as he knew the games, she would use that power to keep both of them in line.

"Oh, fuck." Ray tightened his grip at the spear and exchanged a glance with Jana. She took a deep breath and ran towards the Minotaur, Ray close behind her. He tried to stab the Minotaur at unarmored points but was not very successful for two reasons: first because he had never handled a spear before and second because the Minotaur went down moments later thanks to the massive damage Kratos was dealing with his blades.

They continued on the walkway until another elevator came into sight. Ray remembered a chest, which had been in the area in-game, but couldn't make out anything comparable. Everyone stepped onto the platform and Kratos pulled the lever once more.

Ray remembered the game not that well, but he still knew which 'room' was up next. And he was far from being happy at the thought. The platform came to a stop and the tree walked off. They were on more or less free space, bounded by massive temple-like looking buildings at the left and opposite side and a chasm on the right side and behind them. Both buildings had gates but as far as Ray remembered, the right one wasn't usable because of the destruction Ares' army had caused.

"Hey, you! Have reinforcements arrived?" A man called suddenly. All three turned their heads to the direction the scream had come from. It was one of the soldiers guarding the right gate.

The second guard shouted "Ares has brought these beasts to Athens! Without help the city will fall!" He shook his head in despair and leaned against the twisted and broken metal bars which were everything left from the gate.

"The gate's destroyed! You'll have to…" Two Undead jumped down from the ceiling behind the soldiers. They stabbed the men with their blades, turned around and left leaving the blood soaked corpses behind.

"What the hell is THAT?" Ray spun around and followed Jana's stare. A giant Cyclops climbed over the edge of the cliff on the left and gave a loud roar. It was armored with plates of spiked armor and used a giant spiked ball as weapon.

"FUCK!" Ray shouted alarmed. The Cyclops roared again and approached them slowly. The kids backed up slowly towards the elevator. As the monster walked Ray could feel the ground shake beneath his feet. "We are SO done…" he muttered.

Kratos took the Blades of Chaos out and charged at the creature with a battle cry. Blood splattered with every hit he landed with the chained blades while the Cyclops tried to crush the Spartan with its spiked ball. "Let's take its rear!" Jana said suddenly, not waiting for her friend to answer. She ran behind the beast, keeping her distance while Ray followed some meters behind her.

Jana had an idea how to take the Cyclops down – literally. She rammed her spear as deep as she could into the back of the Cyclopes' left knee. The beast was currently trying to get rid of Kratos who had given it some severe injuries already, as she attacked it. She pulled her spear back out as the Cyclops roared and turned around, limping. It raised the heavy metal ball attached to its right arm and smashed it on the floor. Jana and Ray managed to jump out of the way as the chunk of metal came down.

Kratos used the chance, as the Cyclops turned its back on him to deal with the kids. He leaped on its back, climbed up until he reached the ugly, sickening smelling head and stabbed his blades into the creature's neck. The Cyclops tried to grab the Spartan with its left hand, but Kratos launched himself into the air before it grabbed him, landed on the beast's head und stabbed its single eye with one of his blades.

The blood covered Spartan jumped off the Cyclops head and Jana and Ray ran out of the way as the monster stumbled and finally fell to the ground. It turned to black smoke but Ray knew the battle wasn't over yet. If he wasn't mistaken there were two more Cyclopes to come.

And he was right: two more of the stinking creatures climbed out of the chasm and roared dangerously. Ray gulped. Both Cyclopes were going for Kratos which gave the kids the possibility to attack their rears once again.

Without thinking about his move Ray tossed his spear away, put his shield on his back, jumped at the back of the nearest Cyclops and grabbed its shoulder armor. Jana, who attacked the same beast as him, noticed what her friend was doing out of the corner of her eyes. Ray was holding onto the Cyclops' armor while hanging several feet over the ground, unable to climb up further because of the monster's rocking movements. He cursed under his breath. Jana tried to distract the creature from the person hanging on its back, but failed. She needed to roll out of the way as it smashed its metal ball into the floor once more, and thanked her parents for sending her to Ju-Jutsu training.

The Cyclops reached for Ray, who attempted to doge the monster's hand, and grabbed him. The boy tried to break free from the grip but the Cyclops was much too strong. It held Ray in front of its face and studied him with its single eye.

Jana was on her feet again. She shouted "Go for the optics!" and threw Ray her spear. He caught it and stabbed the Cyclops' eye before the monster could hurt him. Blood shot out of the wound and the monster dropped Ray while stumbling backwards. It covered the injury with one hand, tipped over and turned into black smoke as it hit the ground.

Ray climbed to his feet and smiled at Jana. "Thanks… that was kinda close." The girl nodded and said "No problem." She walked to the place where the Cyclops had died, picked up the blood dripping spear and stood next to Kratos who was this time – surprisingly - waiting for them with an annoyed frown on his face.


	4. Medusa's Gaze

**Chapter****4:**Medusa's Gaze

**AN**

**This chapter took a bit longer due to exams at school and some personal stuff.**

**Feel free to leave a review! Helpful criticism is appreciated, flaming will be ignored.**

**Re-uploaded the chapter: fixed a small error and changed the format of Aphrodite's speech.**

**/AN**

Ray caught up with Kratos and Jana as fast as he could. Athens was crawling with monsters and he sure as hell did not want to stay behind. Things had gone pretty well till now… well, except that Cyclops-bit. And the blood and killing. He had not seen that much blood in his whole life. And he had never killed before. Thinking about the past half hour made him shiver even though the air was quite warm. He wondered how Jana was doing. The way she had been acting had surprised him, especially because she was completely against killing. He actually was, too.

Still, he had stabbed a Cyclops' eye only moments ago without really thinking about it… But it had been the only way, right? If he hadn't done it, he would've been dead by now. It had been necessary to survive. But it just didn't feel right to Ray. And he knew there were a lot more enemies waiting for them. But what worried him most was the Temple of Pandora. Several parts of it were difficult as hell in-game - and probably impossible in real life. Especially the way Kratos would take to return to Athens.

Jana was struggling with her world view, which was based on solid science. Thus she had always dismissed the existence of mystical creatures, gods or dimension travelling as impossible. But now it looked like she had to rethink her view. She had no problems to do so, but she would need to find an explanation for all the things she had seen. Like Ray, she was feeling troubled about killing monsters, even though she had not done it as… impressively as Ray had with the Cyclops. But kill was kill, no matter if it was impressive or not and Jana was against killing.

The girl wondered if she would ever come back to her own world and what had happened to her body back home. Was she dead or in coma or had she simply vanished? She had no clue.

Kratos entered a corridor hoping to find a way around the destroyed gate. It was lit up by torches and led the three into a wide hall filled with stacks of big metal cubes. A screeching sound echoed through the hall. As Jana looked around she that noticed, that turning cog wheels were jutting out of the walls. The noise was really getting on her nerves.

They walked around the hall, looking for another way to get out. Two of the stacks were standing on wooden boxes. Ray remembered the room: it was the first riddle and pretty easy to solve. One had to destroy the wooden boxes. This would reveal the exit, which could be reached by jumping from stack to stack. Ray was searching for a way to let Kratos know without revealing his knowledge, but Jana was a bit faster.

While walking around she had detected a glimmer of light shining from behind a metal box on top of a stack in a corner. "Guys, I think, I've found the exit!" she called out to the others. Ray grinned. Jana was awesome when it came to noticing and remembering minor details, but often sucked when it came to the obvious stuff. She would probably find all chests when playing _God__of__War_. And she would remember their exact locations like she was remembering all _Star__Trek__TNG_ episodes. Ray had never understood how she managed to do that.

The three of them gathered around the stack. It was three boxes high, one wooden and two metal ones. Kratos drew the Blades of Chaos and eyeballed the lowest crate for a moment. Jana and Ray took some steps back as the Spartan swung his blades in a wide arc. They sliced through the planks with ease. Two more strikes and the damaged box was crushed by the weight of the metal crates, blowing up dust and wooden shavings.

Kratos did the same with the wooden box under the stack in the middle of the room while Ray and Jana proceeded to the single box at the other end of the hall. A loud _crash_echoed through the room as Kratos destroyed the second crate.

Ray glanced at the metal cube in front of him. It was higher than him and they'd have to get up there somehow. Kratos walked past them and launched himself into the air. He landed on top of the box.

"Well…" Ray stood closer to the crate, jumped, grabbed the edge of the box and finally pulled himself up. Jana did the same. Her increased physical power surprised her once more. At home she could have never done things like that. Kratos had jumped to the next, two boxes high stack already. Ray took a short run-up and leaped to the next stack. Again, he grabbed its edge and climbed up. Watching her friend, Jana took a deep breath and went after him.

She made the jump and pulled herself up. They proceeded to the next stack, balanced their way across a narrow ledge and finally - after another couple of jumps - reached the exit of the hall.

The next room was smaller and nearly empty. Some sacks and planks were leaning against the walls and the way out was blocked by what seemed to be a yellow energy field between two statures. Ray knew what the sight meant: a new godly power for Kratos but he wasn't sure which one it'd be.

The entrance was located several meters above the stone floor of the room.

"There's a lot of weird stuff going on today." Jana noted while glancing at the energy field.

"Yeah." Ray shared that view. Running around in a video game and killing monsters wasn't something you'd do every day.

Kratos made his way down to the floor and walked towards the energy field. The kids exchanged a short glance and climbed down themselves. The Spartan stepped on a low platform in front of the statures.

As he did so, the face of a woman became visible in the energy field.

"Aphrodite." The warrior greeted her while Jana and Ray stayed back some meters.

"_Kratos.__The __gods __are __pleased__ with __your__ progress, __but __your __current__ skills __will __not__ be__ enough __to __defeat __the __minions __of __Ares.__ I __offer __you__ the __power__ to__ freeze __your__ enemies__ where__ they__ stand.__"_

At that point Ray heard a silent hissing noise from the ceiling. The boy looked up and saw Medusa, one of the Gorgon sisters from the game, sitting on top of a box hanging from the ceiling. He poked Jana in the ribs – or tried to, because she was wearing armor – and gestured at the snake-like monster. The girl noticed it too and bit her lower lip.

"_But__ you__ must __earn__ such __a__ gift.__"_ The goddess continued. Kratos had heard the hiss now, too and glared at the purple Gorgon. It was naked, small snakes were winding around its head and it had claws instead of fingernails. The snakes gave another, louder hiss and the creature disappeared in a cloud of black smoke, only to reappear moments later on the floor some steps away from Jana and Ray. Both of them backed up towards the wall, readying their shields and spears. Kratos drew his blades.

"_Medusa,__ the __queen__ of__ the __Gorgons! __Bring __me__ her__ head, __Kratos, __and __I __will __give __you__ the __ability __to __wield__ its __power!__"_ Aphrodite said. The Gorgon hissed dangerously, turned at Kratos and rose to its full size. Ray and Jana exchanged scared looks.

"Stay out of its field of view or you are screwed!" Ray advised his friend.

"Yep, I read about that." Jana answered. Kratos charged at the beast instantly, swinging his blades with insane speed. But Medusa was fast, too. It sidled out of the reach of the chained blades and made its way behind the Spartan, where it tried to attack him with its claws. Kratos spun around and landed a hit with the blades. The Gorgon hissed and Jana saw green beams of light shoot out of its eyes. Kratos rolled to the side, but the beams followed him.

The Gorgon had ignored Jana and Ray till now and currently had its back turned on them.

"Hey, you! Come and get me!" Ray shouted in an attempt to draw Medusa's attention. He changed to his sword and tried to strike the monster, but missed. Jana saw what the boy was up to and joined the attack. She even managed to give Medusa a scratch with her spear.

Now, that the Gorgon was more or less encircled by three persons, it wasn't able to get away easily and Kratos had the chance to deal some serious damage. Jana and Ray weren't good fighters but they were able to keep the Gorgon busy. It tried to turn the three of them into stone but it never had enough time because always someone else used the opportunity to attack it from the side or behind.

After a couple of minutes Medusa's movements became slower and its defense weaker. In the game the player would have to perform the finishing move now. In reality Jana had used her spear to pin the Gorgon's snake-tail to the ground – or tried to. Medusa's sideling movements didn't make that task easy. Kratos grabbed the Gorgon's head, slammed it onto the ground and began to twist it into different directions.

Medusa screamed and hissed while trying to free herself. Her tail whipped round and sent both Jana and Kratos flying a couple of steps. The Spartan got up again and charged at Medusa immediately. They went to the floor as Kratos started another attempt to rip the monster's head off. Finally, with a triumphant roar, he succeeded. The body of the dead Gorgon turned into black smoke and the Spartan held up its blood dripping head. Jana was back on her feet as well.

"_Freeze __and __destroy __them __all __with __Medusa__'__s __gaze __and__ the__ power __of__ the__ Gorgon __will __be__ yours!_" Aphrodite announced as three Minotaurs climbed out of holes in the floor. Jana, Ray and Kratos gathered in the middle of the room. The monsters approached them slowly. The Spartan held up the head and activated its powers. Green light beams shone at one of the Minotaurs and it began to turn grey.

Jana and Ray took on the other two, not with the intention to kill them, but to keep them off Kratos' back. It wasn't going to well because both of them weren't really fighting but trying to evade the Minotaurs' strikes most of the time.

But the strategy worked out. Six Minotaurs were turned into stone and smashed by Kratos rather quickly.

"_Go__ with __the __gods! __Go __forth __in__ the __name__ of __Olympus!__"_ the goddess finally said and the yellow energy field faded into nonexistence.

"We aren't doing too badly, I'd say." Jana stated while looking at Medusa's head.

"Yeah, we are still alive…" Ray said. He knew there were more powerful opponents waiting for them. And there was still the Temple of Pandora. He'd need to tell Jana more about it when they were alone for a moment. He was feeling bad for not telling Jana about the challenges to come but he was afraid Kratos might overhear them.

Kratos didn't comment on that. He put the head away and walked through the exit into the next area. The kids followed him, ready to defend themselves.

"Are you all right?" Ray asked Jana as they left the room. Jana nodded but the boy noticed she had a couple of scratches and smaller injuries but nothing to worry about. Looking down himself he realized, he didn't look much better. He hadn't noticed the injuries till now and decided to ignore them for now.

The next corridor lead around a corner and ended in a dead end. The only way to proceed was a ladder at the end. As soon as they reached it, a group of at least five undead soldiers climbed out of the floor. Kratos killed three of them rather quickly with his blades while the other two went round him.

One of them attacked Jana, who blocked its strikes with her shield and managed to kill it by stabbing the creature with her spear. The other one went for Ray, who after blocking and dodging the attacks got help from Kratos. The Spartan stabbed the monster in the back, killing it instantly. It turned into black smoke.

The Spartan put his blades away and climbed up the ladder, Ray and Jana close behind him.

Jana suddenly heard a buzz from behind her and looked over her shoulder. A dead Athenian hoplite was hanging from a beam, a cloud of flies surrounding the corpse. She wondered how the man came up there, turned around again and continued climbing. She had no time to worry about the poor guy's fate right now. But one thing was clear to her: They had to help the Athenian citizens somehow.

The next room contained a lever and a ballista. The exit was blocked by a solid looking door. Kratos had a quick look at the ballista and pulled the lever to line it up with the door. Then he walked over to the weapon and fired it. Jana and Ray readied their weapons as the arrow hit the wooden gate and blew it to pieces.

But the corridor behind the door was abandoned. The three walked inside and looked around, their weapons still drawn. There were two ladders, one of them leading down, the other one up to a ledge.

"We split up." Kratos said with his usual frown. "I will take the left way while you check out the right one. Don't get yourself killed." He walked off to the ladder, climbed down and vanished from Ray's field of view.

"What the hell..?" The boy muttered surprised. In the gamed Kratos trusted no one. Why would he do so in real life?

"Looks, like he wants to speed things up a little." Jana commented frowning a bit. "Let's better get going. I don't want to meet the guy when he's pissed off at us." Ray had to admit, she had a point there. Splitting up would indeed speed things up, what made it the logical choice at this point. And a pissed off Kratos would be bad. Very bad.

"Yeah, sure." he said. They climbed up the ladder and ended up on a balcony hanging several meters over the place where they had battled the Cyclopes. Before they could say a thing, three portals opened up in the floor and Undead started to climb out.

"Wouldn't you know it…" Jana said sarcastically. The Undead approached them and suddenly the sword of the foremost lightened up with blue light. The creature jumped but both kids managed to get out of the way and the attack hit the stone floor, leaving a burn mark.

"Shit, this is bad!" Jana cursed while blocking another attack of one of the Undead. Ray agreed with his friend. Fighting enemies who are able to use magic while you can't use it yourself sucked in his opinion.

Ray changed to his sword, because he found it easier to handle than a spear. He tried to slash the Undead closest to him but it blocked and countered the strike. Ray dodged and aimed at the leg of the Undead who didn't see the attack coming. The blade cut through its leg leaving a deep, bleeding wound. The Undead moaned in pain and stumbled backwards, giving Ray the chance to finish it off by slitting its throat. The creature turned into smoke.

Jana was defending herself against the other two monsters, another magic attack barely missing her head. Ray jumped on the back of one Undead and Jana stabbed it, while it tried to fight the boy off. The last Undead wasn't that much of a problem, as it was two against one now, and was taken care of pretty fast.

"Jeez, I thought we'd be dead…" Ray said and moped some sweat off his brow. Jana nodded while looking around. A short ladder was leaned against the wall left to the entrance. Jana glanced up the wall uncertainly.

"We are supposed to climb up there, right?" she asked with a sight.


	5. Ares

**Chapter 5:**** Ares**

**AN**

**Once again, sorry for the slow update… I have b****een busy writing exams at school. Apart from that I've some other projects running parallel to this one and I've been doing some research on ancient Greek and Spartan history and culture - Not only for the story, but also for Latin and history class at school… (Professor Kagan's lectures = epic stuff :o)**

** tarkatan: Thanks for the review, dude!**** (Totally forgot to reply to it…) I think, I've a working strategy. It still needs some work but it should do.**

**/AN**

„Yeah, pretty much that." The boy looked up the wall too, wondering how they should fight monsters while climbing. "Look, there's something I need to tell you about… how things will go later on. It's really important." Jana glanced at him.

"Okay, shoot." She said. Ray had told her the basic story on the ship but she was curious about the details. Apart from that the boy knew the game and if he said something was important he probably had a good reason for thinking that way.

"Okay, we'll have to make up a plan later on, otherwise we're gonna be in huge trouble. Once we leave Pandora's Temple there - " Ray stopped midsentence as he heard sounds from beneath. He cursed under his breath. "Tell you later." the boy muttered and moved to the ladder.

Kratos had just finished exploring the second way. "There is nothing down there. Did you find anything?" He called up to the kids.

"Yeah. A wall we could in theory use to climb the building… I think." Ray said. Kratos thought a moment and nodded. "We will try that way." He ascended the ladder and stepped out on the balcony. He looked at the wall for a moment, probably figuring out which way to use, and started climbing.

Jana put spear and shield on her back and cursed silently. Then she followed the Spartan. She was slower than Kratos and even Ray. They were making their way past two wooden boxes as the first enemy appeared. It was an Undead, spawning right in the middle of the track. Kratos grabbed its leg and threw it down with all his might. The creature screamed and hit the floor with a sickening crunch.

Kratos waited on the highest point of the wall for Ray and Jana. They would need to jump over a rather large gap to reach the next section of the wall. As the Kids caught up with him, the Spartan pointed at the wall on the right and said "We have to get over there!"

Jana groaned at that. She decided it was better not to look down, otherwise she would probably refuse to jump.

Kratos went first. It was a piece of cake for him. Jana was next. She climbed as close to the edge as she could and had a good look on the battle between Ares' minions and the army of Athens. The god himself was, as far as she could tell, not in sight. "You can do this." Ray said on her left. She shivered at the thought of the floor several meters beneath her. But the girl didn't want to stay behind or look like a coward.

Jana pushed herself off the wall and across the gap with all her power. She reached the next wall and grabbed hold on some sticking out stones. For a second she feared to fall down but then the girl found hold with her feet too and moved out of the way to let Ray do the jump.

The boy hesitated, but did it. He sighted in relive as he reached the next wall. It was narrow and they'd have to cross another gap to reach the next section of the wall.

"Um… we're getting company." Jana announced. She was right: Two undead soldiers were preparing to attack them from the wall on their right. Kratos had seen them already and swung one of his blades at them, sending them falling immediately. Then he jumped to the next wall.

The next jump was much easier for Jana. Three undead soldiers spawned as she reached the next wall, one of them right under her. "Fuck." she muttered under her breath. The creature reached for her foot and Jana kicked its arm away as hard as she could. The monster didn't care and pulled out its sword. With another curse the girl tried to kick the monster's face. The creature hesitated and Jana kicked it again. After the third kick she felt something snap under her foot and the Undead finally plunged down.

Kratos had taken out the other enemies and they climbed to the right in order to let Ray cross the gap. Another jump and they were finally on their way downwards. Kratos went first and took out the monsters while climbing.

Eventually the three reached a ledge overlooking the place where they had fought the Cyclopes. An Undead was waiting for them but Kratos simply kicked it off the ledge. The ledge led behind a giant marble stature showing a man reading a scroll. On the other side of the square stood a building with a rope-ladder hanging down from one of its walls. The end of the ladder was hanging too high over the ground to reach it. Ray knew what the Spartan was up to. He wondered if Kratos would be able to knock the stature over with the same precision as he did in game. Considering the fact that the Spartan had to calculate a whole bunch of variables, Ray doubted it would work in real-life.

But he was wrong. Kratos pushed the stature over. As it hit the ground, its head was knocked off and impacted right under the rope-ladder.

"That thing must have scaled _tons_!" Jana said startled.

"Indeed it did." Kratos answered dryly. Then he looked down to the ground and frowned. They needed to hurry and he had no time to search for a different way down to the square. The fastest solution would be jumping down. The Spartan walked back to the kids and lifted both of them up with ease.

Jana and Ray had no time to complain or say anything, because Kratos had already jumped. He landed on the floor with a grunt and placed the kids on their feet.

Destroying the massive stature had turned the square in a field of rumble. But Kratos didn't care about that. He marched off towards the marble head.

"Now we know why all these ancient temples are in ruins." Jana commented in a low voice. Ray chuckled as both kids followed the Spartan.

"In another game he goes to Atlantis, you know…" The boy whispered. "That's the explanation why the city was completely destroyed and sunk. And Poseidon was really pissed because of that. I'll show you, if we make it back home."

"Okay." Jana noticed the 'if', Ray had used. She wondered if he wanted to express the slim chances of surviving or the chance of being stuck in Kratos' version of ancient Greece for ever after the events of the game were over. She wasn't sure which option was worse.

They got to the head of the stature, Kratos climbed on it and jumped in order to reach the ladder. The Spartan climbed up and Jana and Ray followed him in a less elegant way.

The three were greeted with the sight of two green Gorgons. It took a while to get rid of them but eventually one was decapitated by Kratos and the other one had its throat slit by Ray's sword. After it dropped dead, the three went up the next ladder and were once more greeted by two Minotaurs.

After the first one went down another Gorgon appeared.

"I thought there were only three Gorgons!" Jana shouted while dodging the Minotaur's axe. "My information must be outdated!"

"Obviously it is!" Ray replied and struck the beast with his sword. Jana used the chance to land a critical hit at its chest with her spear and the monster turned into smoke. They turned at the Gorgon Kratos was fighting only to see it die seconds later.

The only way to go further up was climbing two damaged looking marvel pillars. As always, Kratos was the first to reach the next floor. And a whole army of undead soldiers was waiting for him there. The Spartan used Poseidon's Rage against them but it wasn't too effective.

As Kratos used his magic power the sky seemed to darken for a moment and thunder cracked in the distance.

It took them some time to take down all enemies due to the fact that a new one appeared once another one died. But finally they made it. Everyone was sweating, covered with blood and – in Jana's and Ray's case - glad to be still alive.

"Holy shit… okay, what's our step?" Jana asked. Kratos had proceeded to a ballista placed on a wooden scaffold and was examining it. He shot it, sending an arrow with a rope attached to it flying over the square, through a gap in a wooden wall and impaling itself into the stone wall behind it. Jana had a suspicion about what would come next and she was not looking forward to it. _Why did the game-devs have to love climbing? _Kratos left the scaffold and grabbed the rope.

As the Spartan started making his way hand over hand along the rope, Ray heard a sound from behind. He turned around and saw two undead soldiers spawning a couple of meters away from him. Jana had noticed them too and readied her weapons. The Undead charged at Ray and her.

Jana blocked the first strike with her shield and slammed its edging in the chest of the Undead afterwards. The blow wasn't powerful enough to seriously hurt the creature, but it gave Jana the time to try to land a hit with her spear. From what the girl had figured out by now, she had to aim for the creature's throat to kill it instantly, because all other important parts of its body were covered with a thick bronze-armor. At least she guessed it was bronze.

She missed the throat of the Undead by a couple of centimeters. She blocked again, as the Undead attacked her once more. This time she managed to stab it. More Undead began to spawn. Luckily for the kids, they only had to face two enemies at a time.

Eventually the last Undead was dead. As Jana turned towards the rope she saw that Kratos had nearly reached the arrow impaled into the wall at the other side and had just sliced another enemy in half. The girl positioned herself under the rope, jumped and grabbed it. She heard Ray mutter something about "overrated climbing" behind her. Jana moved forward hand over hand, her feet dangling in the air. Looking down at the square Jana thought that a fall from this high would have unpleasant consequences (euphemistically spoken), even though she was stronger than back home.

On the other hand dangling from a rope could be seen as less dangerous than fighting tons of monsters and jumping over huge gaps in walls, right? Not like it would stay like this or something. From what Ray had dropped on the ship things were about to become much worse. Considering, they were only at the beginning of the game and hadn't even SEEN the main enemy jet…

Jana and Ray made it across the rope without major problems or falling off. After reaching the other side Jana dropped on a wooden edge some meters over the ground. A ladder was leading to the floor. Kratos was already down there examining a huge door. Inhuman shouts and roars could be heard from the other side as someone or something tried to tear the reinforced door down. The floor was covered with blood and dead bodies of Athenian soldiers.

Ray stepped up to Kratos while Jana looked around biting her lower lip. She hoped to find survivors of the attack. The girl kneeled down next to a soldier in order to check him for vital signs as Ray and Kratos approached her.

"This armor won't offer more protection than your current one." The Spartan commented.

"What do you-" The girl looked up frowning. Then she realized what he had been thinking about. "No way! I'm looking for information, not for a new armor!"

"I don't need any information. Get moving." Jana decided it was better not to argue with the Spartan and confined herself on shooting him a glare - once he had turned his back on her of cause.

The only way to leave the room was by opening a heavy stone door with a crest, which Jana didn't knew, on it. Kratos opened it and they found themselves at the end of the corridor where they had split up at least an hour ago. They hurried towards the ballista in the room at the end of the corridor and Kratos fired it. The reinforced door was broken down by the impact of the arrow and four Minotaurs which had been waiting behind it charged immediately. Kratos took care of them with four more arrows and added even more blood to the carnage.

They headed back to the now destroyed door and climbed down a ladder. After walking through a short corridor they found themselves on the other side of the destroyed gates.

A long bridge and a broad flight of stairs led to what seemed to be the entrance of the city. The bridge was decorated with large pots with flowers in them and burning torches. The middle of the bridge featured a circular metal plate with an owl, the crest of Athens, on it. Corpses were scattered around it.

As the three approached the crest a violent rumble shook the ground. The metal plate started to glow and the holographic picture of a woman appeared over its centre in mid-air. She had long brown hair and wore almost nothing. Kratos was about to draw his blades when she spoke up.

"Do not fear Kratos. I am the oracle of Athens, here to help you defeat Ares." The Spartan put the blade back on his back and reached out for the oracle's bare breasts instead, which caused Jana to facepalm. The girl glanced at Ray who was staring at the hologram with an expression on his face she wasn't able to classify.

The oracle completely ignored that and continued. "Find my temple to the east and I will show you how to murder a god." Then she vanished as fast as she had appeared.

"Wow." said Ray awestruck.

"Yeah, ancient Greek porn. Fascinating." Jana commented in a sarcastic manner.

"She's beautiful, don't you think?" Ray muttered not paying any attention to his friend's comment. Jana rolled her eyes at him and Kratos grunted in a way she interpreted as approval.

They continued across the bridge and up the stairs. The ground shook and a loud bang sounded over from the battlefield. The sound made the girl's flesh crawl. Whatever caused it had to be REALLY powerful. They reached the end of the stairs and passed under two pieces of cloth hanging from a gate.

The sight was jaw-dropping in the true sense of the word. The sky was covered with black clouds and Ares, a giant with red glowing hair and beard and strong looking armor was standing more or less right in front of them. The Athenians were shooting him with burning arrows but the war-god did not care. He simply bowed down, grabbed some soldiers and killed them.

Kratos stepped forward on the half-destroyed square on the other side of the gates. Jana noticed a large Ω carved into the floor. She wondered what it meant. It could be the abbreviation for Olympus or the symbol for 'end'. The first option didn't make any sense to her in this context. Or maybe it was a joke of the devs.

The god roared and stomped on the ground, unleashing a small earthquake by doing so.

"God of war! I haven't forgotten you for what you did that night!" Kratos growled. "This city will be your grave!"

**AN**

**Information concernin****g the progress of the story can be found on my profile page.**

**I hope y****ou liked the chapter. If you did, or if you have a comment, feel free to leave a review. The button's just down there and it takes only a minute.**

**See you next time!**

**/AN**


	6. Taking a City Tour

**Chapter 6:**Taking a City Tour

**AN**

**Thanks for reviewing and adding the story to your alert****/fav list!**

**DT, sahra, tarkatan and Uppgreyedd, I'm glad you like it.**

**Sahra, I've read about GoW4 coming next year, but latest news says that was a fake :( IF it comes I'll have a closer look at it to check if it works with the story. But at the moment we're still stuck in GoW1 and it'll take a while to reach the end of GoW3 plus I have my own plans for GoW4 ;)**

**DT; Y****eah, writer's block sucks. I hope yours is over soon**

**Here****'s chapter 6!**

**/AN**

Jana stared at the god. What she was seeing was completely impossible and as far as she knew against the laws of physics and nature. Okay, most of the events during the past hours had been against the laws of nature of her home-universe or however you'd like to call it. But that didn't made things like giant gods attacking cities easier to process.

Ares' sheer size made killing him hard to imagine. The whole army of Athens seemed to be fighting him currently without dealing any visible damage. But if it would be possible for the Athenian forces to take care of Ares, there would've been no need for Athena to throw Jana and Ray into the _God of War_ universe and to alert Kratos, thus it was more or less logical that the Athenians were in trouble.

Jana wondered how Kratos was planning to kill the God of War - or if he had a plan at all. And she wondered if the thing called Butterfly Effect would make them screw up everything. In theory it was possible and from what she had read, she figured it was very likely shit was going to hit the fan later on.

Not like she'd hope for that: For Jana's taste things were going crazy enough already.

Kratos turned away from the battlefield and Ares and walked towards the path on the left side of the balcony they were standing on. The path seemed to lead towards the center of Athens. It had been built into the cliff face and led them to the end of a regular street. Civilians were running towards them, probably fleeing from the minions of Ares or the fires in the city.

Kratos, Ray and Jana had just entered the street, as a flaming ball of some kind flew over their heads and crashed into a building a few steps behind them. The force of the impact caused the ground to shake and blasted burning rubble in every direction.

"Shit!" Ray exclaimed as everyone dashed forward in order to escape the worst part of the debris raining down on them. They got hit by smaller stones but most of them bounced of their armors. The house collapsed behind them, blocking the way back. Jana could hear injured people scream in pain - A sound that made her wince. Others were apparently searching for survivors under the rubble or tried to clear the way out of the city.

Ray was surprised by the event. In the game the house had collapsed before the player passed it and had thus forced him to take a circuit. It was nothing important, only a small riddle if he wasn't mistaken, but it made him wonder if bigger events were going to differ from the game too. They proceeded along the street past burning buildings and fleeing Athenians, who were too scared of Ares to notice them.

"What IS that stuff?" Ray asked as another fireball sailed over their heads and impacted in a building farther away.

"It's ordinary burning projectiles." Kratos said with a frown. "Ares will burn this city to the ground in two days or less if he proceeds like this." They rounded a corner because the way was blocked by burning debris and ran past an inn. Its windows were shattered but the walls seemed to be mostly intact. Jana toughed she'd made out the word "Zeus" in the name painted over the door, but she wasn't sure. The map of the "real" Athens seemed to be much larger and more detailed than it had been in-game.

Again, the road in front of them was blocked, but this time by a group of Athenian soldiers fighting off a group of Undead and Minotaurs armed with war hammers and axes. One of the Minotaurs unleashed its magical special attack by slamming its hammer on the ground and blew five or six soldiers out of the way. They hit the ground and lay there unmoving.

Kratos got the Blades of Chaos out instantly and charged at the monsters - and Ray and Jana were tagging along. Jana stayed behind a little as she noticed that one of the Athenians who had been attacked by the Minotaur was alive. She helped the man as he stood up. He seemed to be a bit startled by the fact that the person in front of him was wearing Spartan armor.

"You'll be alright?" The Athenian nodded and wiped some blood off his face. In fact he looked really beaten up.

"Can you tell me where the Temple of the Oracle is?" Jana asked him.

"Yeah. It's in the eastern part of Athens." he pointed towards the corresponding direction. "But most streets over there are blocked and the fighting is much worse than it is here. From what I've heard everything's crawling with monsters! I wouldn't recommend going there if…" He glanced nervously over his shoulder and noticed Kratos who was currently fighting two Minotaurs at once while Ray tried to kill an Undead. The soldier took a quick step back from where Jana was standing, raised his hands and said "You… you are with the Ghost of Sparta! Please… don't kill me!" Fear was obvious in his voice.

"What are you talking about?" Jana asked taken-aback by the man's reaction. "Why should _I_ kill you?"

"You got your information! Just… just leave me alone, all right?" The Athenian backed up as fast as he could.

"Err… okay, okay!" Jana said defensively, not sure what to make of the conversation. Ray had told her a bit and she had witnessed Kratos' fighting style but she had had no idea how people were going to react on seeing the Spartan. She had not figured he was THAT well known. Then she turned around and rushed off to Kratos and Ray, who had nearly taken out all enemies by now. Not like she liked the fighting, but acting "cowardly" would probably only make things worse. She needed to talk to Ray about the details of the game once Kratos was out of earshot.

The last remaining Undead were down within minutes. It turned out Kratos knew a few very creative as well as gory ways to deal with enemies, like simply ripping their spines or other organs out or ripping them in half. Or both in combination.

Anyway, it resulted in a lot of bloodshed.

After the last Undead had been send back to Hades, Kratos pressed on towards the temple and left a group of maybe ten creped out Athenian soldiers as well as gallons of blood on the floor behind.

"Where have you _been_?" asked Ray Jana as they hurried down the street a couple of steps behind Kratos. Ray sounded slightly angry.

"Tried to get some information on the temple." said Jana with a shrug.

"And? Did you get anything useful?"

"Erm… only that a lot of monsters are around the place… and that being in the company of him-" she gestured towards Kratos "- isn't very helpful when you talk to people. Oh, and the soldier mentioned something about blocked streets." She tightened the grip around her spear as the sound of fighting form somewhere before them grew louder. This was not how she had hoped her afternoon with Ray would go.

"Yeah. People are afraid of Kratos. And they have good reasons to be, if you ask me."

"I know! But he wasn't even paying attention to the guy I was talking to."

"Maybe the guy feared you'd be as insane as Kratos is because you're running around with him." Ray, who was still pissed, shrugged and looked around, trying to see something that looked familiar to him. They were in a part of Athens that never showed up in-game.

As they made their way through the city the houses began to look more expensive. They were higher than the ones Jana had seen before and some had beautiful and very detailed façade designs and doors. But Ares' attack had left its marks on them. Burning buildings, dead Athenians in the street, Undead and other monsters waiting for victims behind the next corner…

After what felt like an eternity they reached a place Ray recognized. A huge flight of stairs let to a square with a fountain in the middle, surrounded by tall houses. Jana heard screams as they hurried up the stairs and a giant Cyclops came into view. It was wielding a club and tried to crush fleeing people with it. Most of them were normal citizens without armor or weapons. The floor was already stained with blood.

The Cyclops roared and slammed the club on the ground. The resulting shockwave knocked a fleeing man off his feet.

Jana cursed under her breath. This creature seemed to be even bigger than the ones they had faced before killing Medusa.

Kratos drew his blades and charged at the Cyclops who hadn't noticed their arrival.

The kids whirled around as they heard noises from behind. A second Cyclops was running up the stairs, its single eye glaring at them. And it was moving much faster than the first ones they had seen.

Jana and Ray had barely enough time to jump out of the way as the creature's club crashed down at where they had been standing seconds ago. It swung the weapon at Ray who managed to dodge it. Then he leaped forward and slashed the Cyclops' arm with his sword. The cut wasn't deep or dangerous, but it enraged the creature even more. It knocked Ray off his feet and sent him flying.

Jana attacked on her own and slammed the spear as deep as she could in the Cyclops' side. But she wasn't able to pull the weapon out fast enough. The monster's arm hit her with incredible force and sent her flying too. She found herself with aching chest on the floor, a couple of meters away from the Cyclops. The spear still stuck in its side.

"Ow…" said Jana. "Son of a bitch!"

The Cyclops wasn't happy at all. It tore the spear out of its flesh and tossed it aside with an angry roar. Jana climbed to her feet and tried to come up with a way to kill the Cyclops but nothing occurred to her. And where was Ray anyway? Maybe he had had an idea.

Ray had made his way around the Cyclops while it had been distracted. He wanted to reuse the plan they had used against the first Cyclops. After all it had worked - apart from the being-grabbed-bit. The boy slammed his sword into the back of the creature's left knee. The Cyclops' knee buckled and the monster visibly had trouble standing. He repeated the move at the other knee before the monster could turn, causing it to stumble forward and land flat on its face. It tried to stand up again but failed.

The Cyclops roared in pain and smashed its club on the ground but Jana was out of its reach. Ray made his way around it.

"Okay. How do we kill-", Ray started to ask, but was interrupted by the Cyclops, who tried to crush him with its club. Ray jumped out of the way. He had underestimated its reach.

Kratos had just finished of the other Cyclops and ran over to them to finish of the other one. He climbed on the lying monster's back and cut its head off. Blood squirted out of the wound. A second later body and head vanished in a cloud of black smoke.

Ray looked around. Most of the civilians had left the town square, only a few were hiding behind flower pots or statures. Apart from that there seemed to be only one way to proceed: someone had broken open the door to one of the buildings. Ray could see the beginning of a corridor that was lit up by torches. He wasn't sure what had happened next in the game.

Jana had crossed the square was drinking water from the fountain. Ray considered that a good idea and followed his friend.

After everyone including Kratos was done drinking, they entered the corridor. Ray hadn't noticed any red barriers blocking entrances till now. This surprised him a bit because they appeared quite often in the game.

They rounded a corner and saw a woman, who probably had been hiding, standing at the end of the corridor. She stared at the intruders for a moment and then started running. Kratos ignored her and made his way to a huge room with polished stone floor and painted wood panels on the walls. Some of them showed warriors or Athenian citizens. The graphics looked good in-game but reality made thinks look even better by adding more details and better reflections. For a second Ray wished he'd brought his camera.

Kratos walked towards the stairs at the other side of the room, Jana and Ray following close behind him. Dead soldiers were lying on the everywhere and Ray had to be careful not to slip in the pools of fresh blood covering the floor.

The woman was standing at the landing and started running as soon as she spotted them. For a split second a key she was wearing around her neck was visible.

"S- Stay away! Don't come near me!" she shouted and sounded like she'd start crying every moment. Kratos still ignored her even through Ray was sure the Spartan had noticed the key as well. They walked up the stairs and stepped on a balcony. The woman was still running away and Ray watched as she vanished into another building that could be entered via the balcony.

Because there was no other way they followed her into the building. She was standing on the top of the stairs and had finally stopped trying to run away from Kratos. At least it seemed like that.

"I know who you are! I know what you have done… monster!" She sounded horrified as she said that.

"Wait!" Kratos took a step forward, maybe to explain things to her - Ray seriously doubted that – but it was but it was no use.

"Stay back! Get away from me!" And with these words the woman started running again. Kratos looked somewhat disappointed but changed to his normal expression an instant later.

They went upstairs only to find the woman standing with her back towards the edge of a balcony, a frightened look on her face. Ray knew what would happen next.

"Stay away!" As soon as she saw Kratos, Ray and Jana she started walking backwards until she stood with her back against the balustrade.

"Look out, otherwise you might fall off, which might result in your death," stated Jana. She sounded concerned. The woman glanced at her for a brief moment before continuing to stare terrified at Kratos who had opened his mouth to say something. But she didn't give him a chance to do so.

"Don't come near me! Keep awa- AAAH!" Trying to back up further she lost her balance and fell to her death. Kratos, Ray and Jana hurried to the rail and looked down. The woman lay on the town square and a pool of blood was forming around her. All in all it wasn't a pretty sight. And in a way Ray expected Jana to comment the situation but she stayed silent.

Kratos looked around the balcony and discovered that a wooden walkway led to a hatch.

Which turned out to be locked.

"That woman had a key." said Ray.

"I know." Once again Kratos lifted Ray and Jana up with ease and jumped over the balustrade. He landed on the town square near the dead woman. A group of people was standing around her and seamed to be discussing her death.

"…I saw it…"

"…Fell right down there…"

Maybe she was a celebrity or a celebrity's wife. Ray wasn't sure. The people fell silent and stepped out of the way as soon as they noticed Kratos, who headed towards the dead person. He took the key and entered the hallway they had used to reach the balcony before. Ray guessed that new theories concerning the woman's death would include Kratos.

**AN**

**See you next time! Reviews are appreciated ;)**

**/AN**


	7. Slow Progress

**Chapter ****7:**** Slow**** Progress**

As they entered the large room at the end of the hallway, they were greeted by four undead warriors equipped with what seemed to be magic shields: A dim yellow glow surrounded them and their surface seemed to blur under an almost transparent force field. Ray remembered this type of enemy from the game. To attack them, the player had to destroy their shields first by using a special attack, otherwise they were more or less invulnerable by the player's weapons. Ray hated these guys in game because they tended to break his combos before he could perform the special attack and thus had given him a hard time killing them.

Back than they had only been pixels on a screen. But this time they were fucking real.

The Undead screamed and banged their swords against the shields in an attempt to scare their opponents off. This tactic might have worked out, if said opponent hadn't been a certain rather fearless Spartan.

Ray wondered if Kratos knew how to take out the shields. There was a tutorial in the game but he doubted Athena would show the Spartan a pop-up window explaining the button sequence needed to perform a special attack. Maybe he'd ask Kratos about that bit once the fighting was done…

The Undead charged and knocked Ray off his train of thoughts. Two went for Kratos, one for Jana and the last one for him. They didn't run as fast as their shield-less comrades, but fast enough to hurt, when they run into you at full speed. Ray sidestepped the creature charging at him. Being outfitted with a huge load of armor and a heavy shield, the Undead wasn't able to change directions fast enough and skidded past the boy.

Ray used the chance and tried to land a hit on the monster's back. But he wasn't fast enough to do so. The Undead spun around and Ray's sword bounced off the magic force field surrounding its shield. Being surprised by the quick move and the block Ray nearly lost his grip on the sword.

_How__could__it__react__so__damn__fast?_ The Monster closed in on him, trying to shove Ray with its shield towards the wall; a strategy the AI had also used in-game. The boy got his shield between himself and the shield of the undead warrior, leaned against it and pushed as hard as he could. The monster turned out to be surprisingly strong. In addition to that Ray wasn't able to get a secure stand on the slippery floor causing him to end up with his back against the wall across from the entrance after a few seconds.

Ray could see Jana fighting an Undead whose shield had already been destroyed, while Kratos was dealing with the remaining two creatures. Their shields had also been smashed.

He had no time to think about how they had managed to get rid of the magic protections that fast, because the Undead tried to stab him. Thanks to his armor and shield, Ray wasn't providing it with much of a target. The attack missed him by inches and Ray's badly aimed attempt to counter-attack was blocked by the Undead with ease. It made a choking noise, which Ray interpreted as laughter. He guessed it was a bad sign when even Undead laughed him down because of his lag of sword skill.

"Guys? Help would be great!" called Ray while leaning against the monster with all his weight. Kratos kicking the monster's ass wasn't exactly how he'd liked the fight to end, but what other option was available? And having his ass handed to him by an Undead seemed far worse.

The Undead attacked again. To Ray it appeared to be grinning broadly. And this time it had a better aim. Ray tried to avoid the strike but it didn't go too well. The attack left a long, bleeding cut on his right arm. Ray winced and gritted his teeth. Like hell he'd give the monster another reason to laugh at him.

Kratos had finished off the first Undead and left Jana to deal with the second one. This wouldn't be much of a problem due to the fact that the creature had already gotten one hell of a beating from the Spartan. He started running and jostled the Undead attacking Ray away at top speed. They skidded across the hall and the Undead turned to face its new opponent. It attempted to pin Kratos down against the wall as it did with Ray, but Kratos was way stronger than the boy. He kicked against the shield, sending its owner flying backwards. This maneuver gave him the opportunity to destroy the magic shield by using the Blades of Chaos.

Now, that the biggest problem was solved, the remaining two Undead – Jana and Ray had killed the one Kratos had wounded by now – went down rather easily.

After all enemies were dead Jana suddenly noticed Ray's injury. She hadn't had the chance to check on him while they were in a fight. "You okay? That cut looks pretty bad."

"Burns like a bitch." Ray said while having a closer look at the wound. It wasn't bleeding that badly and didn't seem to be very deep. "But I guess, I'll be all right."

Jana frowned a bit. "I don't know much about medicine and stuff, but there is a danger of inflammation. You should clean the wound when we have the chance."

"I know," muttered Ray and rolled his eyes.

The three hurried across the room and up the stairs.

"You know what? That Undead laughed at me." Ray huffed while they ran up the stairs. He looked at Jana. "You know how… how embarrassing that is? I know, I suck at fighting. But I didn't know I was that bad."

Jana chuckled lightly. The whole thing could have gone unnoticed if Ray hadn't brought up the topic. She had been too busy fighting to check on her friend and therefore hadn't seen the behavior of the Undead.

"What! This is not funny!"

"Ah, come on. Why do you even _care_ about what a fricking Undead thinks?" asked the girl, still grinning. "It's dead and, well, maybe it'll tell Hades but…" (Ray rolled his eyes once more) "Wait…_do_ they even think?" She certainly had a weird opinion on how to cheer him up. Ray was about to replay in an angry tone when Kratos intervened.

"Both of you cut the crap," growled the Spartan. The conversation was obviously getting on his nerves. "Will that scratch handicap you?"

"Err… No, I`m fine." Kratos' intervention couldn't keep Ray from shooting Jana a glare. He liked her, sure, but sometimes she could be a real pain in the neck.

As soon as they left the building and stepped out on the balcony linking it to the second building, another Undead with magical shield appeared. Kratos saw him and slammed his blades against the shield. Sparks and pieces of wood filled the air around him. The creature screeched in surprise as it understood how useless its magical defense was against the Ghost of Sparta.

The Spartan used its hesitation and latched his blades into the body of the Undead. Then he launched it into the air and threw it at an undead archer standing on the other end of the balcony.

The archer's dead eyes grew wide as its brain calculated the trajectory and noticed that the flying body was about to slam right into it. A split second later the 'projectile' impacted and both creatures turned into black dust once they hit the ground. The second archer drew an arrow and was about to shoot it when Kratos approached it and grabbed it with his bare hands. The creature struggled to break free but the Spartan snapped its neck with a quick movement.

"A bit more stealth and some green paint and he's gonna rival Thane." said Jana sarcastically. Ray snorted. The image was hilarious but they had no time to dwell on it.

They reached the staircase leading up to the balcony from where the Athenian woman had fallen earlier. Another pair of archers was waiting for them at the stair head, arrows already on the bowstrings. As soon as they caught sight of Kratos and his companions they released the arrows.

Ray and Jana raised their shields while running up the stairs in order to avoid being shot. One arrow impacted in Ray's shield and stuck there, the other one had been aimed at Kratos, who caught it in midair and threw it back at its owner. The archer was hit right between the eyes and dropped dead. The second archer succeeded its comrade seconds later because Kratos had sliced it in half as soon as the archer was in range of his blades.

They left the building and headed towards the hatch they had discovered earlier. Kratos fished the key out of a pocket in his skirt and unlocked it. Ray glanced at the agora below them. The woman's corpse was still lying there, now surrounded by more dead Athenians. Some of Ares' minions had probably surprised and killed them. Ray gulped and wished he could have saved them. But he wasn't even able to look after himself in this strange world. How high were the odds of saving someone else's butt?

By the time he turned around again, the hatch had already been opened and Kratos was about to enter it. Jana and Ray followed him suit and dropped into a stone hallway. It looked much like the other ones they had seen already: lit up by torches and about three meters high. There was a difference through: this time it smelled moldy and the walls were slightly wet. Ray had to keep an eye on the floor in order not to slip.

After a short walk they came across a bifurcation. A group of hoplites was running towards them on the right pathway with undead soldiers at their heels. The boy could see the terror written in their faces. He knew the scene from the game. And he knew there was nothing he could do.

"Go!" one of the men screamed with panic in his voice. Ray watched as Kratos approached the bifurcation. The Spartan ignored the Athenians completely.

Suddenly a distant explosion shook the ground. Dust and small pieces of rock fell from the ceiling but apart from that nothing happened.

At first Ray thought the events had changed, because the corridor was still mostly intact. But then, an instant later, the ceiling came down and the warriors were buried under it. Kratos did not even flinch as their screams filled the hallway.

He simply followed the second way through a couple of puddles and past the bodies of more dead Athenians.

"What have we gotten ourselves into?" whispered Ray. Knowing what was going to happen did not make seeing it any easier to deal with. Jana stayed silent. There was nothing to add and no useful answer she could have given him.

With a last glance at the collapsed tunnel roof she followed Kratos and Ray further down the corridor. For a couple of minutes nothing interesting happened. Maybe Ares minions were already done with the sewers.

Eventually a broad flight of stairs came into view. It led to a small backyard surrounded by a metal fence and the wall of another building. Broken pieces of pottery were spread on the floor and burning houses could be seen through the bars of the fence. Jana made out some Athenians fighting undead soldiers on the streets. There was no way leading out of the yard, except…

"No way. No fucking way." muttered Jana. The building on the opposite side was overgrown with vines and Kratos was heading towards them. "These things are never going to support our weight, I guess."

"Oh, you'd be surprised…" said Ray and stood next to Kratos. Jana raised an eyebrow and followed him.

The Spartan grasped a vine and wrenched hard. It didn't come off the wall.

"See?" Ray said with a shrug. Jana didn't look convinced but nodded.

Kratos started climbing immediately, Jana and Ray shortly after him. They made their way past a balcony with an Athenian fighting an undead legionary and a couple of windows. Ray glanced at the streets beneath him. Ares himself had entered Athens and was destroying building after building with his bare hands. After a while the vines came to an end. Luckily there was a balcony on the building they had left when they had entered the backyard. It seemed to be just in reach, but failing to land on it could cause one to fall to his death.

After everyone had landed safely on the balcony, they entered the next room. It was rather big, parts of the roof had been destroyed and there was a collapsed wooden stairway, which probably once led to a higher floor. Jana figured it might have been a warehouse, because lots of amphorae and pots were standing at the walls. There were also stains of blood on the stone floor and some of the walls.

Suddenly Ray heard a noise and turned his head to its direction. A man in Athenian armor was lying in the middle of the room. He moved weakly and a pool of blood had already formed around him. Then, out of nowhere, another sound filled the air: a strange hissing and scratching. Whirling blades surrounded by a cloud of black dust shot out of the floor and moved directly towards the dying man. As soon as they reached him, they stabbed him and threw him at the side.

A creature emerged from the floor. Its upper half looked mostly like a standard Undead with giant blood dripping blades instead of hands, but where its legs should have been, was only dark smoke.

Ray cursed. He had hated this type of enemy in the game.

"A wraith." snarled Kratos.

Two more wraiths appeared behind the first one.

Then, without warning, they melted back into the floor and attacked. Kratos drew his blades. Ray gripped his shield tighter. This would be a rough fight.

Two wraiths went for Kratos. He blocked the first attack and evaded the second one by rolling to the side. Ray had no chance to watch the rest of Kratos' moves, since the third creature was coming directly at him. He caught the first blow with his shield but its sheer force made him stumble back a step. The wraith launched its second attack and Ray blocked again.

Jana had sneaked up from behind the wraith while it was preoccupied with Ray and landed a hit with her spear. The wraith hissed angrily while melting back into the floor.

Ray watched as Jana made a run for it across the room, the wraith's blades swirling behind her, and finally climbed onto the destroyed wooden stairway. The wraith emerged from the floor. Highs were no problem for these monsters, as they were always hovering about half a meter over the ground. The girl stood on the lowest stair, keeping the wraith at bay with her spear. Nearly all of her strikes were deflected by the creature's armor.

Ray dashed to Jana's position. A short glance over his shoulder told him, that Kratos had finished off the first wraith and was currently fighting some Undead, who had joined the fight, and the second wraith. While Ray watched, Kratos got out the head of Medusa and turned a couple Undead into stone. The sound of stones being shattered mere seconds later explained their fate.

As soon as Ray reached the stairway, he slashed the back of the wraith's armor. It spun around, ready to attack Ray, but Jana used the chance and pierced the monster's now unprotected back.

With one last angry hiss the wraith dissolved into black smoke. At the same time a small group of undead archer emerged from the floor in front of Jana and Ray. Compared to Cyclopes and wraiths the archers weren't much of a problem. In the end there was nothing left but some stains of blood and a couple of arrows spread on the floor.

Kratos had just finished off the last Undead by using Poseidon's Rage. Ray watched as it turned into smoke and finally vanished. He sighted with relief. In his opinion this battle had been one of the toughest in-game. Sure, Ares and the last room in the Temple of Pandora were worse, but with low health and magic this part of the game could be insanely hard. But this time it had worked better than he had ever expected.

The Spartan looked around for more enemies, but it seemed like all were dead - at least for the moment. He shook some blood from his blades and slid them back on his back.

Ray hoped Kratos would ignore the half destroyed wooden stairway and simply leave the building, because a bunch of monsters including a Cyclops were waiting at the top of the stairs. Luckily, Kratos did so and led the way out of the house onto a bridge lined by marble columns. At some spots burning rumble was blocking the way.

Some warriors were running across the bridge towards them.

"Go! Go! Go! Ares has breached the city-" A ball of fire hit and killed them. The main part of the bridge also was destroyed, the only things remaining of it being three giant marble columns overgrown with vines.

Kratos walked to the edge of the bridge and looked down. There wasn't much to see: the biggest part of the city was burning and smoke was making it impossible to make out any details on the ground.

"I guess we have to get across somehow." said Ray.

**AN**

**Well, finally! This took like forever… Hope, you like it.**

**[rage]**** And**** why**** in ****HELL ****are ****those ****stupid ****ads ****virus-infected?**** Seriously, ****what**** is**** this ****shit! ****[/rage]**

**If anyone is interested in beta'ing the story, feel free to PM me.**

**/AN**


	8. The Power of Lightning

**Chapter 8: The Power of Lightning**

Jana stared at the other side of the gap, trying to make out details, but it was mostly the same as with the ground far under them: There was far too much smoke in the air to see anything.

Out of nowhere as it seemed, an arrow zipped by Kratos' head. The Spartan did not even flinch and glared in the direction the projectile had come from.

"So… How exactly are we going to do this?" asked Jana a bit nervously.

"Both of you will guard this side of the bridge while I clear out the archers." Kratos said after a brief pause. "I will signal you, once I am done."

"All right." Jana gave a short nod. She watched as the Spartan leaped off the street towards the first marble pillar and landed on top of it. Again, poorly aimed arrows hissed through the air, all of them missing their targets. Jana turned around again and watched the house they had left only minutes ago.

Nobody spoke. The only sounds to be heard were the crackle of flames and the sounds of battles raging in the town. Now and then far-off explosions shook the ground.

Finally Ray broke the silence. "Things have been going surprisingly well so far… But I wonder how long our luck's going to last."

"This." Jana said with a frown. "Just curious: What's going to happen next in the game?"

"Erm… Yeah, right… Normally we should find a temple of Zeus soon. Kratos gets a new power and after that… Hm. We should find the Oracle soon. But I'm not entirely sure."

"Okay."

Once again they lapsed into silence.

Kratos returned after another minute or so. He jumped from a balcony belonging to the left building back to the first of the three pillars. He motioned Ray and Janna to follow him.

Jana, Ray and Kratos made it across the gap without major problems.

They followed a street towards what seemed to be the temple of Zeus, which had been mentioned by Ray earlier. Surprisingly, there had been no monsters waiting to chew off their faces on the way. There also hadn't been any Athenian civilians or soldiers.

Ray knew that climbing the Temple of Pandora would take roughly about three days. He also knew they'd never be able to solve all its riddles and survive all its deathtraps in less than a day. Adding the desert to the calculation – at least another day – it would take Kratos circa five days to return to the besieged city. And he hadn't even calculated the time it would take Kratos to come back from Hades. Judging by how the city looked at the moment, chances were good that Kratos might only find a pile of rumble once he returned.

Once again, thinking of the events following retrieving the Box of Pandora made him feel like a lump was forming in his throat. He still had to tell Jana about it. And he had missed a great opportunity to do so minutes ago. Before he could ponder on the subject anymore, they arrived on the bridge leading to the temple.

A pile of rubble and what seemed to be human corpses was burning in the middle of the bridge. Ray looked away. Dancing shadows were cast at the front of the temple and made it look like more monsters were moving between the dirty marble pillars. A group of undead archers had taken sniping positions on top of the roof, enabling them to take out any foes as soon as they spotted them.

Ray could see the tips of the archers' arrows glowing in faint reddish light.

As far as he could recall the game, undead archers had mostly been quite bad at their job. Sure, it was never a good idea to press one's luck and simply run right into their line of fire, but these dudes had - like harpies – only one purpose in life: Trolling the player.

Distracting him, so that more powerful enemies would have the chance to kill him off easily.

The archers on the roof hadn't caught sight of Kratos and his companions yet. Ray and Jana got their shields out and held them over their heads. Then they headed towards the bridge. Arrows began to whizz past them, some hitting the shields. Kratos, being Kratos, ignored them or, if one was about to pierce him, sidestepped.

As soon as they arrived under the projecting roof, the attack stopped.

They stood in front of a huge image showing Zeus with a lightning bolt in one and a giant sword in the other hand. It was at least twice as high as Kratos. Staring at the picture, Ray couldn't help but think how it didn't look like Zeus at all. Or not like the Zeus he knew from _God of War 2_ and _3_. The sword was probably the Blade of Olympus. The artist had captured it quite well and in a very detailed way, making Ray wish to be not longer around, once the sword showed up the first time on Rhodes.

He wondered why the artist had screwed up painting Zeus but managed to draw his sword so well.

They entered through a small side entrance and followed a corridor. It led past a couple of other doors and rooms. Some walls were red with blood and now and then corpses of priests lay on the floor. The interior differed from the one shown in the game: There was no riddle and no door to be shot down with a ballista.

More pictures of Zeus and some other gods Ray did not recognize ornamented the walls. He wondered if Kratos or Jana knew these guys.

Finally they reached the main chamber of the temple. It was illuminated in a dim, blue light coming from the opposite side of the room. Once again, the exit was blocked by a force field flanked by two statures of the King of the Gods. The trio crossed the room, ignoring the golden pictures on the walls.

Jana and Ray waited in the background, as Kratos approached the blue hologram. The face of an old man with long beard and hair appeared. His eyes were pupil-less and seemed to glow faintly, but apart from that, he looked perfectly normal.

"Lord Zeus." Kratos greeted the god. Hearing Kratos talk to Zeus in such a respectful way sounded strange to Ray. Basically every other time these two met, one was trying to kill the other - or at least threatened to do so.

The god turned his head slightly, glancing at Ray and Jana for an instant.

"_Greetings._" Zeus's voice echoed through the room and Ray had the impression it'd make the floor beneath his feet tremble slightly. His next words were directed not only to the Spartan but also to the kids. "_All of you grow stronger as your journey continues. But if you want to succeed in your quest, you will need my aid. I offer you the power of the greatest of all the gods, the father of Olympus._"

He made a dramatic pause. Ray wondered why so many extremely powerful characters had to act melodramatic.

"_I offer you the power of Zeus._" His glance returned to Jana and Ray, as if he was considering very carefully whom to give his power. When he started speaking again, he looked right into Jana's eyes. She seemed to shrink a bit under the god's stare, but returned it.

"_Step forward, girl._" Ray raised an eyebrow. It wasn't supposed to go like this. Kratos stepped to the side reluctantly, giving Jana the chance to stand in front of the archway.

"Uh, okay…" Hesitatingly she walked to the spot where Kratos had should have been standing. Her heart was pounding like mad and sweat was forming on her palms. She took a deep breath and met the god's strange-looking silver eyes.

"_Take this weapon. Take this power to destroy your enemies!_" Jana blinked. She didn't feel any different.

"Um, thanks." She said a bit startled.

"_You have done well so far. Go with the gods. Go forth in the name of Olympus!_" The face, the force field and the wall behind it vanished and opened a way out of the temple.

"You might want to test your new weapon before you do not know how it works in battle." suggested Kratos.

"Yeah… sure." Jana wondered if she had gotten a magic power at all, considering she felt the same way as usually. She thought about a way to activate the power. She had to concentrate really hard, but finally the lightning bolt appeared in her right hand and crackled silently.

"Cool." commented Ray dryly. "But I guess, you have to throw it…"

Jana pulled her arm back and threw the lightning bolt like a javelin. It flew through the open door and crashed into a marble pillar, where it left a small burn mark. Ray wondered what had convinced the ruler of Olympus to give his power to Jana, from all of them. What made her a better choice than Kratos?

What made her a better choice than _him_?

He could feel anger rise within him, partly directed to Jana and partly to Zeus.

They hurried out of the temple, but in the meantime the bridge had been destroyed. Also, a hole had been blown into a nearby building. As every other path was blocked, Kratos led them into the house. The furniture had mostly been destroyed. Shattered pottery covered the floor.

As they continued, they came across stairs leading to the upper floor. Kratos was about to climb them, when the scream of a woman from somewhere within the house sounded over to them.

The Spartan froze on the spot.

Then he turned around and sprinted towards the room, out of which the noise had come. Jana and Ray were close behind him, a bit startled by his reaction. Kratos kicked the fragile looking wooden door open, revealing a bedroom. A young woman with long and curly dark hair and a dirty tunic was standing with her back against the wall, trying to fend off an undead soldier with a short metal pole. It looked like she was barely able to lift it, let alone fight with it.

All in all, she wasn't too successful. Kratos drew his blades and lunged forward, cutting the undead soldier's head right off. A gory shower exploded from its neck. Kratos lowered his blades and took a closer look at the woman.

Ray muttered something involving the words 'mini game'.

The young woman wiped some blood off her face. "Thanks for the rescue. Those swords look pretty cool… with the fire stuff and everything. Well, that move was pretty awesome, too! Are you a god or something? Because you have got magical swords. By the way, my name is Demetria and-"

Kratos cut her off midsentence. "You should get yourself a better hiding place. This house is not safe." He turned around and walked back the way they had come from.

Jana and Ray exchanged glances. "Sorry about him. He's always like that. And he is no god." He called over to Demetria and ran after Jana. "At least not yet." He muttered under his breath.

Kratos' reaction had startled Ray. The Spartan simply wasn't the kind of person to run around and save random people's lives. There were scenes in the games where he tried to do so, but usually he failed. And something told Ray, he hadn't seen Demetria for the last time.

Her behavior also seemed strange to Ray. Sure, Kratos had saved Demetria's life, but normally people wouldn't act all happy and excited if a stinking and murderous monster got its head sliced off by a random guy with crazy-looking blades right in front of one's nose. And he hadn't even mentioned Kratos' reputation in all of this.

They climbed out of a hatch and stepped onto the roof. Ray looked around. He could see fires raging throughout the city and the shape of Ares looming over some distant buildings.

In the meantime Kratos had spotted a "path" leading across the rooftops of the neighborhood. The houses were standing close together, which resulted in relatively short distances between the distinct roofs. Plus there were no Undead or Minotaurs to be seen on the nearby rooftops.

Suddenly and out of nowhere, as it seemed, a group of harpies swept down from the dark sky and started to attack. The ugly creatures were intelligent enough to stay out of reach most of the time which made it hard to land a direct hit with a regular sword. Apart from that, they were moving extremely fast. While Kratos used the Blades of Chaos to slice the bird-creatures in half, Jana had serious trouble giving them even a scratch with her spear. Finally she concentrated and summoned a lightning bolt and threw it at the nearest harpy that was trying to attack her. The lightning bolt hit it and exploded in a shower of golden sparks. She could feel how using magic made it slightly harder to concentrate. Like it drained one's mental energy, she thought. All in all it wasn't much, but enough to be noticed.

Jana did not wait to see what happened next. She turned around, deflected an attack with her shield and engaged the next harpy. Another monster crashed into the back of her armor, causing Jana to stumble forward. She spun around, but the harpy was already out of reach. It screeched happily.

Then a Blade of Chaos sliced its head off.

There were still at least a dozen harpies left.

Ray was having the same problems as Jana, plus he did not have any magic to make up for it. Currently he was trying to block the attacks with his shield or to simply evade them. Basically it was the same as with the Minotaurs during Aphrodite's challenge. The only difference being, that this time he simply _could_ not strike the harpies.

Kratos was hacking his way through the swarm of harpies in a quite gory way. He hated those creatures. They were boring to kill. And they were wasting his time right now. He had to get to the oracle. If Ares' minions found and killed her…

He dispatched the last harpy.

They moved on as fast as possible. The rooftops were mostly deserted and after about half an hour they climbed down a façade and dropped onto the streets once more. The path was blocked by a broad and extremely deep chasm. As far as Jana remembered the maps of ancient Athens, there had never been a chasm like this. But hell, there had been crazier things today and none of them had been mentioned anywhere. She shrugged it off.

The only way across was a bascule bridge which was controlled by a lever on the other side of the chasm. The problem was that said lever was being hold down by a citizen, preventing them from using the bridge.

The man seemed to be scared out of his wits. Kratos sized him up for a moment. Then he bellowed: "YOU! I must get across. Release the lever, extend the bridge!"

The man shook his head violently, eyes wide with panic. "No… No! I won't let 'em get me… They won't get across… These monsters… they'll… they'll tear me apart…" He seemed to be close to crying at that point.

"Coward." muttered Kratos. He motioned Jana to finish the man off. She gulped.

"Okay, look. Just let us cross here –", she began, but the Athenian stopped her midsentence.

"No… Go away… I bet… you are with those monsters…"

"No, we are not. I promise you no monster will follow us when we set foot on the bridge." The man ignored her. Jana sighted. "Step away from the lever and we won't hurt you, okay?"

Again the man shook his head. Jana concentrated and a thunderbolt formed in her hand. The Athenian's eyes seemed to grow even wider.

"Hurry up. We don't have time for this." growled Kratos impatiently. Jana threw the magical weapon and closed her eyes. A scream a split second later indicated that she had hid her target. The bridge started moving and half a minute later it could be crossed. On the other side, Jana tried not to look at the person she had just killed.

"Get over it." said Kratos. "This is not different from killing Undead. And in my town it is an honor for the best graduates to have the chance to…"

"Yeah, I think I've read about that. Krypteia or something…"

"Yes, that is how it is called."

Ray frowned. "What are you guys talking about? What's that Kryp-what-is-it-called thing?"

"As far as I know, it can be compared to a secret service. Young men who were extremely successful in school would work there. It's their job to kill strong slaves at night without being seen. At least that is what I read." Jana replied.

"Sounds crazy to me. Why kill your workers?"

"Training for example." Kratos shrugged. "But don't worry. Killing some won't hurt economy."

"Riiight…You haven't ever heard of human rights, do you?"

"No. Besides, they are slaves, not citizens. Why should they be granted rights?"

"But won't the… owners be pissed if somebody killed off their slaves?"

"No. After all, the state owns them."

"Okay, that _is_ crazy." Ray shook his head. Kratos shrugged at that. While Ray was happy to live in the world of twenty first century and wondered how one could be so ignorant, Kratos had no idea why Ray considered the system crazy. Jana hadn't participated in the last part of the conversation at all. Discussing Spartan politics with Kratos wasn't something she considered healthy. But it surprised her, how matter-of-factly the Spartan had stayed.

They entered the hallway which the man at the lever might have been guarding. It led through a couple of smaller rooms and was mostly empty. One time they nearly ran into a squad of Undead and wraiths who had been setting up a poorly planned ambush, but luckily the creatures' armors rattled loudly, giving away their locations. The following fight was rather short.

Eventually they walked into a room with an elevator at its end. After everyone was standing on the platform, Kratos threw a lever, causing the ancient mechanism to descend into the darkness below. There were no torches or other light sources at all. It took what felt a couple of minutes till the elevator came to a halt in a dimly lit room. It was completely empty, floor and walls were as wet as they had been in the other underground tunnels.

Jana walked to the door and glanced outside, Ray and Kratos following suite. The sight surprised her. A long and narrow bridge was leading to a stairway carved out of rock. Parts of it had been destroyed but it still looked stable enough to be crossed. Beneath her was the town square where the woman had fallen off a balcony. Her corpse was still laying there. The whole place seemed to be deserted at the moment.

Kratos moved past Jana and a spit second later a group of people came in sight at the other end of the bridge: a woman wearing ragged, light green clothes which left nothing to the imagination, and two soldiers fighting off a swarm of harpies. They were driven back, outnumbered by the minions of Ares.

"Oracle!" shouted Kratos. Jana thought, she had heard a tad of worry or maybe even panic in his voice.

The woman turned around, recognized them and ran towards the damaged part of the bridge. "Praise Athena, you have arrived!" A fireball crashed onto the stairs behind her, the shockwave sending her flying forward. She gave a surprised scream and hit the ground, hard. The fireball had killed the oracle's companions and most of the harpies. The remaining two bird-creatures shot forward and gripped the woman's arms, lifting her into the air.

"Shot them, girl! Hurry!" demanded Kratos. He sounded slightly freaked out.

Jana cursed under her breath. "No. If I did, I'd probably roast the oracle!"

"No! Kratos! Find me! You must find me!" The oracle screamed, as the harpies carried her away. "Athens depends on it!" And with that, she was out of sight.

Kratos growled and his frown seemed to become even deeper. "Move."

At that point, Ray was actually glad someone who knew about physics had gotten the Thunderbolt. Otherwise the mission might have been toast.

In the true sense of the word.

Maybe, he thought, Athena had made a good choice by choosing them after all.

**AN**

**Thanks to everyone who read, alerted or faved the story :D**

**Special thanks to tarkatan for beta'ing.**

**Blackpaw: Glad you like it.**

**tarkatan: I've got something planned there. You'll be surprised ;)**

**Merry Christmas and a happy new year, guys!**

**/AN**


	9. A new Mission

**Chapter 9: A new Mission**

After seeing how the Oracle of Athens was dragged off by two harpies Kratos was not exactly in a good mood. He had hoped to get this done quickly: Find the oracle, talk to her, acquire whatever was necessary to kill Ares and finally kill the God of War. But at the moment it looked like the job had become slightly more complicated.

As he balanced across the remains of the bridge, he could not help but wonder it Ares knew about his presence in the city. Maybe capturing the oracle was part of Ares' plan. Maybe the God of War himself wanted to know about that weapon, too. Or maybe the harpies had just been looking for some delicious food. If so, Kratos would make sure they had no chance to enjoy their meal.

Why was he even thinking about this anyway? It was not helping him to accomplish his goals at all and only the Fates knew if the capturing had been a coincidence or not.

Kratos ran up the stone stairs. He could hear the clang of the kids' armors behind him, indicating they were still following him. The stairwell ended and the oracle was nowhere to be seen. Kratos glanced up at the dark night's sky but the smoke arising from the besieged city was far too thick. If the harpies were somewhere up there he had no chance of making them out.

Before him lay a narrow path which had obviously been carved out of the rock long time ago. It was dark, the only light coming from the burning buildings below. The Spartan started running again. He followed the path around a curve and a group of undead sentries came into view. While running, Kratos pulled out the Blades of Chaos which instantly blazed up with orange fire.

The Undead drew their swords and charged forward. Kratos counted at least five of them. This would not be too much of a problem.

As soon as Kratos was in range, he swung the blades in a wide arc without even slowing down. The reaction of the first Undead was way too slow, causing it to be sliced in half. The other creatures backed up, but Kratos launched himself into the air and landed on the second monster's shoulders, crushing it with his sheer weight. As soon as it was on the floor, he stabbed the Blades into its chest. It dissolved and he got up again. In one swift motion he knocked the sword of the third undead sentry out of the way with one Blade and sliced its throat with the other one.

He heard the sound of colliding weapons behind him. The kids were most likely dealing with the fourth monster. The fifth had stayed in the background till now. It was slightly bigger than its companions. Maybe it had a higher rank than the others, Kratos guessed.

The Undead charged. Basically it used the same attack as the first Undead he had killed. Kratos was about to use his Blades the way he had before, when the monster surprised him: It tried to copy his jump attack. Suddenly its sword lit up with blue light. Kratos sidestepped and slammed one of his Blades into the skull of the Undead as soon as it landed. The light faded and the monster collapsed, turning into black smoke as it did so.

Kratos turned to check on his companions. They had killed the undead sentry successfully and had no major injuries. He turned again and headed up the path. Every delay made it more likely to find a dead Oracle in the temple, or wherever the harpies had taken her.

After a few hundred meters another flight of stairs came into view. Kratos sprinted up the steps as fast as he could.

When he finally reached the upper end, he found himself at the end of a long bridge. And it led right to the temple. Kratos felt a hint of nervousness. Finding out about that weapon… That was what he had worked for during the last ten years. And now he was so close to finding it. The Spartans yaw twitched and he darted off towards the temple.

"Holy… shit…" groaned Ray when he finally reached the end of the stairs.

"Yeah…Is that the Temple… of the Oracle?" Jana wiped some sweat off her brow and pointed at the building in the distance. She and Ray were both panting. Kratos had set an extremely brisk pace. As they watched he was already half way across the bridge.

"Yes. Come on… We've got to hurry." Ray followed Kratos as fast as he could, Jana in tow.

To Kratos the bridge seemed incredibly long. He growled. In the air above the courtyard in front of the temple wheeled a swarm of harpies. Two of them were carrying the oracle towards the building. She screamed and struggled against their claws but to no avail. The Spartan reached the end of the bridge in time to watch her being dragged into the temple.

"Kratos! Help-" The rest of her scream was drowned by the screeches of attacking harpies. Kratos rolled to the side as the first bird-creature shot towards his face, claws stretched out. He drew his Blades and sliced it in half. Blood splattered as the dead monster hit the floor.

When Jana and Ray finally left the bridge and stepped onto the court yard, the battle was already raging. Kratos had slain around half a dozen harpies and was currently fighting a gorgon which had appeared only an instant ago. The Spartan got out of its field of view as fast as possible. Instead of turning him to stone, the snake-woman's deadly stare hit a group of harpies behind Kratos. With a flash of white light they were petrified. All of them tumbled from the air and shattered into a million pieces once they hit the floor.

Kratos kicked the gorgon in the back, gripped some of the snakes it had instead of hair with one hand and cut its head off with the blade he held in the other hand. A fountain of blood sprayed skywards. Kratos ignored the crimson liquid raining down on him, while he proceeded disemboweling the next harpy within range.

Seconds later the battle was over. Kratos slid the Blades back onto his back and looked around one last time. There were no enemies left.

Ray and Jana caught up with Kratos when he set off towards the stairs in front of the temple.

"You should really try to keep up with me." Kratos growled.

"Maybe you shouldn't run off like-" Began Ray, but a light chuckle cut him off midsentence. Kratos drew his blades as everyone whirled around to face the source of the noise. At the left side of the courtyard someone had been digging a hole. A small lantern placed on top of a pile of dirt was illuminating the scene.

"Good, my boy, good!" An old man emerged slowly from the hole. He was carrying a shovel, had grey snarled hair and wore a long, dirty robe. It was impossible to guess what color it might have had once. "Athena has chosen wisely. I knew it was so!"

Jana darted Ray a questioning look but he only shrugged and indicated her to listen.

"Who are you?" Kratos demanded. He had lowered his weapons slightly and was now glaring at the old man. The Oracle was still waiting for him.

"So you have the Blades, the skin as pale as the moon… You are the one, indeed. Perhaps Athens will survive, at that." The man chuckled again. Still a smile on his face, he continued. "But be careful. Don't want you dying before I'm done with this grave." He pointed at the hole behind him and resumed digging. Kratos put his blades away and stepped closer. Ray and Jana followed slowly, a bit unsure about what to do.

"A grave, in the middle of a battle? Who will occupy it?" Kratos furrowed his brow.

"You will, my son." The gravedigger looked Kratos over and shook his head slightly, chuckling when he saw the surprised look on the Spartan's face. "Oh, I've got a lot of digging to do, indeed. All will be reveled in good time. And when all appears to be lost, Kratos, I'll be there to help." Whit that, he returned to digging the grave.

Kratos turned and hurried back to the entrance of the temple.

"I wonder who that dude is." Jana mused as soon as they were out of earshot.

"A senile, old gravedigger." Kratos shrugged and the chains of the Blades jangled silently. "You saw that yourself."

"Hmm… I don't know." She thought for a moment. "He sounded pretty serious about digging your grave. Senile would be an explanation, sure, but…" She trailed off, the entrance of the temple looming in front of them.

A long flight of stairs, lit up by oil lamps hanging from the ceiling, led into the building. As in the temple of Zeus the walls were beautifully ornamented. As they raced upstairs Jana wished she had had more time to inspect the different pictures. Some of them reminded her of photos she had seen in books.

The main chamber of the temple was bigger than the one in the Temple of Zeus. Parts of the ceiling had crashed down, corpses and blood puddles were on the floor. In a far off corner of the room some wood had caught fire.

"Over there!" Ray pointed at a grille on the left wall of the room. It was decorated with a blue owl, the Oracle's symbol. An instant later the sound of flapping wings and the screeches of harpies filled the room.

Kratos growled angrily and pushed the door open. Everyone dashed through the doorway and the Spartan slammed the door shut just as the first harpy was about to follow them. One of the metal bars hit it straight in the face with a loud crunch. No one of them stayed long enough to watch the unlucky creature die.

Kratos stormed up the spiral staircase leading to the temple's upper floor with Jana and Ray in tow. It seemed like this part of the temple had been only used for maintenance or something similar, as there was no proper floor. A grid of bars had been built over the main chamber's ceiling. It was – in contrast to the ceiling – mostly intact. There was a doorway at the opposite side of the room.

Getting to the other side of the room took some time. Kratos went first, testing the stability of the ledges first before stepping on them fully. Jana and Ray followed carefully. At one point Kratos tested a loose bar. It broke away under his foot and took a part of the ceiling with it. Wood and stone hit the floor beneath with a resounding crash. Ray hoped the rubble had landed on a random harpy's head. Apart from that they encountered no major problems.

As they entered the hallway at the other side they ran right into about two dozens of undead soldiers. Once Kratos saw them, he increased his speed even more and launched himself into the air just before colliding with the first row of monsters. The jump carried him more or less into the middle of the group. He landed and unleashed the Rage of Poseidon, frying close to every Undead in the corridor. The few survivors were killed mere seconds later by the Blades of Chaos or Ray's sword. Jana hit another monster in the face with a lightning bolt.

They took another staircase and finally left the building, just in time to see two harpies fly across the garden of the temple, the Oracle in their claws. She struggled against their iron grip.

"Kratos! Kratos, help me! Help-" She screamed in fear, as the harpies suddenly dropped her about a hundred meters above the floor of the garden. To Kratos time seemed to pass in slow-motion as she fell. But before he could react, she had gripped a rope hanging down from a random crane and clung to it for dear life. "Hurry! Please!" Her screams echoed through the garden.

Kratos frantically searched the garden for a way to rescue the Oracle. There was not much to work with: stone walls overgrown with vines, a fountain and a huge stature of the goddess Athena carrying some kind of serving tray. He calculated the distance between the edge of the tray and the Oracle's location. It would take a giant leap to cross the gap, but it was his only option to save her.

He dashed through the garden and started to scale the stature as fast as possible. The oracle screamed again. "Please! Get me down!"

Ray glanced up at the rope and cursed under his breath.

"Come on!" He shouted to Jana and roughly gauged the location where the oracle would land in case she would fall before Kratos could rescue her. They positioned themselves under the rope, ready to catch the Oracle, even though Ray doubted his plan would work if Kratos failed.

In the meantime Kratos had climbed the stature. The oracle had been watching his every move and had finally stopped screaming. Kratos calculated his jump one last time, sprinted across the tray and launched himself into the air.

He grabbed the Oracle, who instantly let go of the rope, and turned in midair - otherwise he would have landed on top of her as soon as they hit the ground. The woman screamed from the top of her lungs as they fell.

Jana watched as Kratos jumped off the tray from below. "Wait. How are they going to –"

_Crash. _The Spartan and the Oracle impacted on the floor not far from the door through which they had entered the garden only a minute ago.

Ray ran through the garden, past the fountain to the spot where the two had landed. If he wasn't mistaken, the game did not show that part for some reason. Kratos and the Oracle were on the floor, both of them blood-smeared and bruised up.

"You okay?" Ray asked as he helped the Oracle of Athens to her feet. Quite contrary to the game her clothing was ragged and bleeding cuts from the harpies' claws were visible on her arms and shoulders.

"I will be fine, thank you." She turned to face Kratos who had also gotten up. "Kratos. As Athena herself has foretold. But you are late, perhaps too late to save Athens. Or is it Athens you have come to save?" With these words she stepped forward and placed her hands on the Spartan's temples. Kratos tried to get away from her, but her hands started to radiate an electric-blue glow.

"No! No I-" He stopped midsentence and Ray saw his eyes widen. Whatever the Oracle was doing took only seconds. She removed her hands from the Spartan's face and stepped back.

"By the gods! Why would Athena send one such as you?" She sounded confused and shocked by what she had seen. In the game a cut-scene would have reveled more of Kratos' past, but his bloody memories were probably much more disturbing in real life than in a game, Ray guessed.

Kratos grabbed the Oracle by the throat. For an instant it looked like he was about to snap her neck, but then he simply pushed her to the side and snarled, "Stay out of my head!"

"Choose your enemies wisely, Kratos." Athena's Oracle wasn't impressed at all by Kratos' behavior, that much was clear. She walked over to a door in the wall. The symbol of Athena was engraved in it. She touched the picture of the owl and said "Your brute strength alone will not be enough to destroy Ares."

The owl lit up under her hand and the door slid open. "Only one item in the world will allow you to defeat a god."

Ray thought, he had heard Jana comment on that. He did not want to know what would happen if Kratos got his hands on a second all-powerful weapon or whatever Jana had been thinking about.

"Pandora's Box," The Oracle continued her explanation, ignoring whatever Jana had said. "which lies far beyond the walls of Athens, hidden by the gods across the desert to the east. But be warned. Many have gone in search of Pandora's Box. None have returned."

"Well, that desert sounds like the place to spend one's holidays at." Jana said jokingly.

The Oracle shot her a piercing glance. "This is no laughing matter. Do you know how many lives are at stake here? Do you know what might happen if Ares is not stopped? It is not only Athens that is in danger! If Ares goes on like this he might destroy Mount Olympus itself. And the consequences of an act like that are beyond your imagination."

"I know, I know… Sorry. Didn't mean to… Well…" Jana raised her hands. "Don't worry, I'm taking this seriously." The Oracle did not look too happy or convinced by the statement, but decided to drop the matter for now.

"You will need supplies for the journey through the desert. Follow me." The oracle turned back to the temple and led them to a door Ray had not noticed until now.

"There is no desert in Greece I do know of." Kratos stated.

"Yeah. Reaching the nearest desert, let alone find some Box in there, might take months, if not years." Jana said, seriously this time.

"For those, who serve the gods there are means unknown to others." The oracle opened the door and led them down a dark, narrow hallway. Ray guessed this was her way to say 'shut up and don't question my skills'. She stopped at another door and entered the room behind it. Ray got a short glance on crates, baskets and some amphorae. "Wait here." With that, the door closed behind her.

They waited in silence until the oracle reappeared a couple of minutes later. She was carrying three old looking backpacks.

"These contain enough water and food to supply you for a short amount of time." She handed the first one to Kratos. "Find Pandora's Box. It is the only way to defeat Ares. The only way. Keep that in mind."

She handed Ray and Jana each a backpack. "Remember, the consequences of your decisions might be severe. Consider that before you take action." She was about to add something but changed her mind. Then the Oracle led them back to the garden.

In front of the door with the owl engraved in it she stopped and turned around.

"This is all I can do for you. Go through the gates. There begins the path to Pandora's Box."

With this Kratos, Ray and Jana left the temple of the Oracle behind and stepped into another dark hallway. The massive stone door quietly slid shut behind them.

Ray shuddered slightly. Now they were officially on a quest to find Pandora's Box.

**AN**

**Screw what I said concerning GoW IV a couple of chapters back. There have been some leaks lately showing GoW IV is most likely in development. HELL YEAH! *dances on table***

**Okay, back to topic:**

**The scenes from Kratos' point of view were fun to write. Maybe I should do that more often. Thinking about how there were only really short parts told from his POV till now it would make sense, I guess.**

**Thanks to tarkatan for beta'ing!**

**I forgot about that one last chapter: Demetria is an OC and belongs to me.**

**/AN**


End file.
